Mick's Pizzeria, Cohoes

Behind the counter at Mick's Pizzeria, handmade dough regularly pirouettes through the air, flung by the fingers of a pizza chef carrying on the nearly century-old tradition of New York–style pizza making. They top the pies to order, combining flavors from a pantheon of 26 ingredients that range from bacon and shrimp to eggplant and peppers. Delving into the menu, diners also might encounter other pillars of Italian-American cuisine, including chicken parmesan and baked ziti. The cooks supplement their pies with baskets full of tasty chicken wings, slathered in one of six spices and ready to singe taste buds.