With many restaurants, it has become common, nigh unto a cliché, to speak of “elevating” foods that are typically straightforward: elevated bar staples, elevated comfort classics, elevated street eats. But elevating is a trickier lift than it might seem. When does elevating become erasing? Put another way: Is it still a Philly cheesesteak if it sports taleggio on brioche? Exactly.

For Parm Famous Italian, this school of query is famously beside the point. Michelin-starred chefs Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi, and restaurateur Jeff Zalaznick, launched Parm Famous in 2011 in New York City. The restaurant has become renowned for showcasing (while also rethinking) the Italian-American standards the chefs ate growing up — an embrace of tradition that tastes better than tradition ever did.