Adrienne's grandma-style pie.   (Photo: Kenneth Chen)

• The storied L & B Spumoni Gardens notwithstanding, square pizza has always been the also-ran, a doughy dowdy sister to the sexy, pliable Neapolitan slice. But this year, thanks to the recent revival of the relatively rare grandma-style pie and impressive work by a fleet of Staten Island–based pizza trucks, some of our favorite slices turned out to be four-sided and fabulous.

• Sullivan Street Bakery

  73 Sullivan St., 212-334-9435

  Even at room temperature and bereft of mozzarella, the sweetish sauce and barely caramelized crust make the pizza pomodoro a Roman-style work of art.

• De Marco’s Pizzeria and Restaurant

  146 W. Houston St., 212-253-2290

  When the slices are good at this loosely affiliated spinoff of Di Fara, they’re very, very good—nearly Midwood quality. Consistency can be a problem, though. And, for some reason, out-of-the-oven pies taste better in the takeout annex than in the restaurant proper.

• Rizzo’s Pizza

  30-13 Steinway St., Astoria; 718-721-9862

  Mecca for serious students of the thin-crust Sicilian style, Rizzo’s makes a square slice that can honestly be called a local treasure: a zingy tomato sauce; a mix of mozzarella, Parmesan, and Romana cheeses; and a quarter-inch crust with a golden raised edge.

• Lazzara’s Pizza Café

  221 W. 38th St., second fl.; 212-944-7792

  A favorite among garmentos and square-pie aficionados, this old-fashioned, tin-ceilinged pizzeria serves its crusty Sicilian pies in ancient, oven-worn baking pans.

• Jiannetto’s Pizza Truck

  47th St. nr. Park Ave., 917-287-7241

  The best of the motorized competition, this oven-outfitted truck vends exceedingly crisp grandma-style sauce-lover’s slices to a grateful desk-jockey crowd.

• Di Fara’s Pizza

  1424 Ave. J, Midwood, Brooklyn; 718-258-1367

  If the deliciously oil-slicked, trek-worthy Sicilian at this venerable slice shop tastes better than the regular (a topic of incessant blog debate), there’s good reason: The sauce, unlike the one owner Domenico DeMarco applies to the round, is meat-based.

• Adrienne’s Pizza Bar

  54 Stone St., 212-248-3838

  A rare treat outside of Queens and Long Island, the grandma-style pie—think square, Sicilian style, but thinner and lighter— is baked to crisp-bottomed perfection at this stylish financial-district restaurant.

From the 2006 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine