Fornino - Park Slope, Brooklyn

The first fires in Fornino's pizza ovens may have been lit in 2004, but executive chef Michael Ayoub has been a local fixture for nearly 40 years. Dubbed the "First Chef of Brooklyn" when his first kitchen, Cucina, became the borough's first restaurant to be reviewed by the New York Times, Ayoub draws on the past while looking to the future.

The first sign of his respect for the past is the name above the door—Fornino is his mother's maiden name, and a tribute to his family's long history of oven-tending. The second sign is the three styles of pizza on the menu. Labeled First, Second, and Third Generation, the styles start in Naples, move on to Italy at large, and finally settle on American soil. The oldest styles are the most pared down, with three takes on the simply delicious margherita. By the time the pizzas have evolved to their most modern incarnations, they've been layered with more innovative ingredients such as white truffle oil, fingerling potatoes, and shiitake mushrooms.

Since the restaurant's original Williamsburg opening in 2004, it has launched additional locations in Brooklyn including a spot in the historic district of Greenpoint and along Brooklyn's waterfront in Brooklyn Bridge Park.