For most of its time on earth, the New York slice has not been seen as a product that needed tinkering. Yes, pizza in the city has been accessorized with toppings from crayfish (not bad) to Buffalo chicken (hmm) to Caesar salad (no, no, no, no, no). But the foldable, portable triangles of cheese, sauce and dough themselves were generally held to be a natural resource that was perfect as is, much like the soft, unfiltered city tap water claimed to be the source of their excellence. Some pizzerias try to make a better slice. Very few try to make a different slice.

Mama’s Too makes a different slice. It combines some of the most appealing elements of a Neapolitan pie with the most satisfying aspects of the archetypal product sold on paper plates from sidewalk windows. It is as if Frank Tuttolomondo, the owner and pie architect of this informal but very serious pizzeria on the Upper West Side, has learned how to genetically modify pizza.

The bulge of crust at the edge of what Mama’s Too calls the “house slice” is brown, more rough than smooth and baked to a ferocious crackle. You could tear it off and enjoy it on its own, or maybe with butter or olive oil, just as you can with the best Neapolitans. Yet the flat layer of crust on the bottom is firm, without the soupy center of the Neapolitan style. True to New York form, you can hold it in the air by the curved rim and it will stay flat and parallel to the floor.