Under-the-Radar Pizza

New Yorkers, Philadelphians, and Chicagoans hardly know what to make of the wonderful pizzas at the original Ledo Restaurant in Adelphi, with their sweet, tomatoey sauce and biscuity crust—qualities that mark them as hopelessly out of pizza fashion. If locals aren’t as enamored of them as they ought to be, it might be because their acquaintance with the pies is through the mediocre Ledo Pizza chain. The owners franchised their business in the ’80s, and the spinoffs don’t do justice to the real thing.

For that, you have to go to the Adelphi location—now called Tommy Marcos Ledo Restaurant (2420 University Blvd; 301-422-8122; ledorestaurant.com)—a wood-paneled, memorabilia-lined place that opened in 1955 and remains a family business. Our pick: a medium with pepperoni, light on the cheese.