The scene: Pizzeria Bianco is one of the most important restaurants to open in my lifetime in terms of transforming America's food scene. Recent years have seen a proliferation of high-quality foods in places outside their traditional regions, places they might not be expected to excel.

The obvious example is barbecue, which can now be found at high levels from coast to coast. Other once geographically challenged foods that have spread nationwide with success range from fried chicken to banh mi sandwiches to gelato, not so long ago, hard to find outside of the South and large cities respectively. 

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Source: http://www.usatoday.com/