71. Serious Eats 2011: Santillo's Brick Oven Pizza, a Time Machine in Elizabeth, New Jersey

 Santillo's Brick Oven Pizza, a Time Machine in Elizabeth, New Jersey (click here)

"The phone rings at Santillo's Brick Oven Pizza and Al Santillo Jr., third-generation bread-baker and pizza-maker, picks up. "Yeah? The usual? OK. How's your mother? OK. See you soon."

Hidden down an alleyway between two houses in a sleepy section of Elizabeth, it's just the kind of place you'd expect that kind of exchange to happen. Santillo's is a certifiably old-school New Jersey pizzeria. Al says he's been working at Santillo's since he was 5 — he's now 54."