While attending a food show in New York City last March, Bellevue restaurateur Roberto Caporuscio was invited to concoct his light-as-air pizzas at Naples 45 Ristorante on Park Avenue.

Among the crowd of 50 gathered to taste the special Neopolitan pies was food critic Ed Levine. A month later, Roberto says, "He called me and said, 'Can you please send a pizza to New York?"

So Roberto whipped up his signature "Regina Margherita," -- with its fresh tomatoes, fresh basil and mozzarella di bufala -- froze it and spent $60 to ship it overnight to Levine.

Last month Levine's book, "Pizza: A Slice of Heaven," landed in bookstores, marking the 100th anniversary of the nation's first licensed pizzeria, and on its list of America's 13 best pizzerias is Roberto's Bellevue restaurant.

"It is a good thing," says Roberto in lovely Italian rhythms. "I'm very happy and proud to do this."

In just four weeks, as Levine's paean to pizza has summoned the foodie faithful, Roberto has welcomed new customers from as far away as Hawaii and Michigan -- a process helped by prominent book reviews in The New York Times and USA Today.

A couple dozen pizza pilgrims have brought their copies of Levine's book for Roberto to autograph. Judging from the phone calls he receives, even more tourists from far-flung locales are Bellevue-bound. Thanks to the book's inclusion of the pizzeria's phone number, visitors have not been deterred by its recent name-change -- from Regina Margherita (which Roberto lost in the dissolution of a business partnership) to the eponymous Roberto's Pizzeria.

"Isn't it wonderful?" exclaims Sam DiBattista, a friend and fellow restaurateur who helped bring Roberto to Bellevue. "I love it!"

A few doors down the street, DiBattista's gorgeous Vivo has always been a destination restaurant; like Roberto's pizzeria, it's the kind of place people make a special trip to enjoy.

Already a convert to Roberto's elegant pizzas, I tried Vivo a couple of years ago after overhearing two women discussing it at a school board meeting. Having addressed Vivo's luxury-level prices, one woman said, with a satisfied sigh, "I just had to eat there once in my lifetime."

With such commendations from admirers both local and national, it's hard to overestimate what these culinary entrepreneurs are contributing to their adopted hometown.

Sabatino "Sam" DiBattista arrived first. A native of the Abruzzi region of Italy, his family immigrated to America when he was 3, settling in Coraopolis. He spent years in all aspects of the food business, including a stint in the Marines as a mess hall cook in Okinawa and years assisting the chef at the Pittsburgh Hilton.

When the search for a new home brought his young family to Bellevue, DiBattista started dreaming of creating a restaurant on the borough's charming Lincoln Avenue. With help from many family members, Vivo has been one of Pittsburgh's best upscale establishments since its opening in March 2000.

Within months, DiBattista met Roberto Caporuscio in the Strip District when he spotted a sandwich board advertising Neopolitan pizzas. "My God, this is wonderful!" was Sam's reaction to Roberto's handiwork as guest chef at a local restaurant. "I think I ate there every day for three weeks straight."

Soon Roberto, himself a recent immigrant from Italy, was scouting possible restaurant locations.

One day Sam spotted him peeking through the front window of Vivo and persuaded him to open in Bellevue.

"I knew he would succeed -- he's very focused," Sam says.

But there was at least one significant hurdle: Neopolitan pizza is very different from what Americans have come to accept as pizza. The crust is very light, and ingredients are sparse but fresh and intensely flavored.

"He was called names -- 'the pizza Nazi,' " Sam recalls. "No one understood the concept."

But it caught on -- and how. Roberto opened a second pizzeria in Lawrenceville two years ago, but sold it to his former business partner, along with the "Regina Margherita" name, when they parted ways.

The Bellevue shop remains a mecca for pizza lovers and health-conscious gourmands. It's also a treat for those who appreciate the marble-topped tables, tile floor and two-ton, wood-burning oven Roberto had shipped here from Italy.

How he got that oven into the building illustrates the "focus" that his friend Sam mentioned (and also possesses). The oven, necessary for pizza worthy of the Naples tradition, was too big to fit through the front door, so Roberto simply busted open a bigger hole in the building's facade.

Such determination is what has enabled these culinary comrades to succeed in what some might consider an unlikely place, but as Sam says, "The location isn't as important as what you do there."

In fact, he thinks the location -- with a slower pace and lower costs than Downtown -- allows them to experiment and grow. With Vivo solidly established, Sam has opened a popular coffee house nearby and is turning a garage behind Vivo into a meeting place for entrepreneurs.

Their success is Bellevue's success. Whether residents or regular visitors, we can count our blessings by the plateful.