You can take the boys out of Queens, but you can’t take Queens out of the boys. So when Johnny Awsim and Armando Afzali opened their place just off Little River Turnpike in Alexandria, they brought in iconic paintings of the New York skyline, the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty (the lovely lady is now backlit and hung in a place of honor by the register). For all the kitsch, the guys know their pizza. They make dough five times a day, crank out vats of sweet plum-tomato marinara and use only natural spring water for everything on the menu. A single slice can be a pretty heavy meal, especially if you go with the buffalo chicken or chicken alla vodka, both of which swamp the crust with a mound of meat doused in a rich sauce. The white pizza is the best in the D.C. area, and a mango-chili grilled chicken slice is drizzled with a not-too-sweet sauce. 4813 Beauregard St., Alexandria, 703-354-8383.

In a squat, white brick building off Little River Turnpike in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County, Valentino’s looks as if it has been airlifted from Queens. In spirit, it has. Co-owner and New York native Armando Afzali makes dough and sauce as his family has for years at joints in the Big Apple — with one difference. “New York tap water . . . works well for pizza,” he says. “Here, we use spring water to get the dough nice and soft, like butter. When you eat it, it melts in your mouth.” At lunch, Valentino’s is packed with locals along with a hearty contingent of federal workers and Secret Service and police officers, Afzali says. (Friends occasionally call to make sure everything is alright, because the parking lot is full of cop cars.) The restaurant offers a broad menu of pasta, subs and salads, but what most people go for, at least by our accounting one busy lunchtime, is the pizza.