Vertuccio's Pizza on the Park

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Williamsburg certainly isn't lacking in meticulously designed restaurants serving perfectly curated menus (free-range fried chicken with artisinal mac 'n' cheese and seasonal Brooklyn lager, anyone?). So although this spacious pizzeria on McCarren park may have a slight Midwestern-red-sauce-joint vibe, it actually comes off as a refreshing alternative to the taxidermy and subway tiles that dominate the local scene. The restaurant's centerpiece is a sizable brick oven turning out a wide variety of wood-fired pies like a sausage and broccoli rabe pugliese and the tonotto with tuna, cherry tomatoes, olives and scallions. Unlike your hometown Maggiano's, however, these pizzas are crafted by an authentic Palermo pizzaiolo: Gaetano Giuffre. While giant landscape murals depicting Italian rural idyll and the scent of basil and tomato may have you daydreaming of Napoli, your waitress's Polish accent will remind you that you're only blocks away from Greenpoint's main drag.

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Williamsburg restaurants, New York restaurants, Brooklyn restaurants, Italian restaurants, Pizza restaurants