L&B Spumoni Gardens

Ludovico Barbati, who came to Brooklyn from Torella dei Lombardi in 1917, sold spumoni and Italian ices from a horse-drawn wagon before buying a lot on 86th Street in 1939. By the mid-1950s it had grown into a spumoni factory, pizzeria and luncheonette, and the family still runs it. This is the original: a pizzeria with a sit-down dining room and, in warm weather, a sprawling outdoor patio where it can feel as if half of south Brooklyn has turned up for dinner.

The order is the Sicilian square — a thick, airy crust with the mozzarella laid underneath and the tomato sauce spread over the top. Take a couple of squares per person, then a cup of the house spumoni, the product that started it all. The dining room serves full red-sauce dinners, chicken parm and pastas for big family tables, but on a summer evening the squares and spumoni on the patio are the whole point. A Dumbo branch opened in 2024; this is the one to make the trip for.