Moroni & Brothers Pizza Restaurant, Washington DC

José Velasquez, the co-owner of Moroni & Brothers Pizza Restaurant, crafts the eatery’s dough himself. The mounds—blends of flour, yeast, honey, salt, and olive oil—then get hand-stretched into crusts that Washingtonian magazine laud as “excellent canvases.” Upon those planes, custom combos of more than 25 toppings scatter, such as mussels and buffalo mozzarella, before baking in a brick oven. The result, raves the Washingtonian, is pizza with “more finesse” and “more soul” than its chain counterparts.

But pizza is only half the story at Moroni & Brothers. Rather than rounding out the menu with easily ignorable pizzeria eats or plastic food replicas, Velasquez includes zesty Salvadoran and Mexican specialties. On the Salvadoran side, the culinary team whips up tongue stew and sautéed pork chops, as well as El Salvador's national dish: pupusas. On the Mexican side, cooks stuff quesadillas with spinach and fill tacos with grilled fajita beef to add a bit of zip to a common dish.