Pizza has come a long way in Baton Rouge. There was a time in the recent past where all the city had were the quick-delivery chains and a few local joints. But several Baton Rouge restaurateurs have shifted their attention to the Italian pie and have focused on creating pizzas worthy of praise. Dat’z Italian in White Star Market is among the best.

The booth in the Government Street food hall produces flavorful, complex pies, and its cooks do it faster than almost anyone else. Dat’z Italian uses painstakingly sourced ingredients — flour from Naples, imported pepperoni and tomatoes — while crafting flavor-filled nontraditional pizzas. Because they use an extremely hot wood-fired oven, pizzas move from the oven to the table in a few minutes.