New Neapolitan pizza magnet fosters communal dining

Food: Neapolitan pizza

Service: responsive

Best dishes: red pizzas, including the Margherita and Amore Mio

Vegetarian selections: salad, pizzas

Price range: $$-$$$

Credit cards: all major credit cards

Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sundays, 5:30-11 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays, 5:30 p.m.-midnight Fridays, 11 a.m.-midnight Saturdays

Children: definitely, particularly for weekend lunch and early evening

Parking: valet or free lot behind the restaurant

Reservations: no

Wheelchair access: yes

Smoking: no

Noise level: moderate to high

Patio: yes, a nice space

Takeout: yes, but you have to order in person and wait

Address, phone: 1540 Monroe Drive N.E., Atlanta. 404-709-2690.

Website:www.varuni.us

At Varuni Napoli, the new Neapolitan pizza joint in Morningside, the comparison with Antico is quite inevitable, given that this new spot’s chef and co-owner, Luca Varuni, was formerly Antico’s prime pizzaiolo.

Here, customers will experience the togetherness that co-owner Giancarlo Pirrone’s design fosters, with tables large enough for communal dining and separate dining spaces conceived for varied experiences. They’ll return for table visits from a smiling Varuni and his beautifully irregular handmade Neapolitan pizzas cooked in the wood-burning ovens on display. Even if they aren’t precisely the best specimens customers have tasted, they are good enough.

Go for the red-sauce pies like the Amore Mio, adorned with charred basil leaves, fresh roasted artichokes, frayed strips of sweet sopressata, black olives and plugs of mozzarella. You also could make a meal from platters of tangy burrata or full antipasto spreads with soft Taleggio cheese, mixed olives, folds of prosciutto di Parma and a dish of house-made ndjua.