In spite of pizza’s status as Italy’s most beloved export, relatively few regional styles (Neapolitan being a noted exception) have made it across the Atlantic. This year, a pair of Roman pizzaioli are aiming to change that. Stefano Callegari kicked things off last week when he inaugurated a branch of Trapizzino in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, while Gabriele Bonci will open a (yet to be named) Roman-style pizza by the slice shop in Chicago’s West Loop this summer.

Over the past decade, Callegari and Bonci have become Rome’s premier pizzaioli, emerging as innovators in a crowded market by pushing the boundaries of Rome’s ubiquitous pizza al taglio (pizza by the slice), a style unique to the Italian capital. Generally speaking, this Roman fast food sold in bakeries and takeaway shops, where it is baked in rectangular pans in electric deck ovens, then sliced and sold by weight.