With a Saturday lunch crowd packing the open-air courtyard at L’antica Pizzeria da Michele in Los Angeles, a power outage might have spelled disaster. But a recent blackout put a spotlight (albeit a battery-generated one) on what the two-year-old Hollywood restaurant does so well. When the lights and electric ovens suddenly went bust during my visit this month, the kitchen staff set aside the pastas and fish dishes and focused instead on the storied wood-fire pizza.

Francesco Zimone and fellow Neapolitan chef Michele Rubini opened the first U.S. location of L’antica in April 2019. The original Naples location dates back to 1870, a decade before electricity was a thing, and long enough ago to warrant the brand’s reputation today as “world’s best pizzeria.”