Mozza has been sprawling so relentlessly that some of us have taken to calling it the Mozza Industrial Complex. And every time you poke your head into Nancy Silverton's outpost of the Batali-Bastianich empire, there is new ground to surveil — this year, it has been the magnificent whole-hog dinners Chad Colby prepares Saturday nights at the Scuola di Pizza. If it's Monday, do you wait in line for the pizzeria, or do you get takeout from Mozza2Go, knowing that it's the only day they bake focaccia? In the Osteria, will it be stuzzichini and triumphantly bitter cocktails at the cocktail bar, milky snacks from Silverton at the Mozzarella Bar, or a table way in the back, so remote you half-expect St. Bernards to arrive with kegs of Barolo around their necks?

Matt Molina's handmade pastas and roasted guinea fowl are the stars of the Osteria. Next door at the wonderful but oversubscribed Pizzeria Mozza, Silverton has more or less reinvented the very idea of pizza, airy and burnt and risen around the rim, thin and crisp in the center, neither bready in the traditional Neapolitan manner nor as wispy as you find it in Rome. (Standard disclaimer: Silverton is a family friend. A family friend who happens to make breathtakingly good pizza.) In addition to a full array of Pizzeria Mozza salads, antipasti, lasagne and panini, Mozza2Go offers a few things not available in the restaurant proper, including a porchetta sandwich that practically explodes with fennel pollen and a flat, round, hot panino stuffed with greens and custom-made stracciatella cheese that is the closest thing you'll find around here to the legendary torta al testo of Umbria. Pizzeria: 641 N. Highland Ave. (323) 297-0101, pizzeriamozza.com. Daily, noon-mid. Beer and wine. Osteria: 6602 Melrose Ave. (323) 297-0100, osteriamozza.com. Mon.-Fri., 5:30-11 p.m.; Sat., 5-11 p.m.; Sun., 5-10 p.m. Full bar. Mozza2Go: 6610 Melrose Ave. (323) 297-0100, mozza2go.com. Mon.-Fri., 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sat.-Sun., noon-10 p.m. Valet and street parking All major CC. Modern Italian/Pizzeria.

99 Essential L.A. Restaurants 2011:

Jonathan Gold's Introduction
Anne Fishbein's Photos
The Google Map

The List:

A-Frame
Akasha
Alcazar
Angeli Caffe
Angelini Osteria
Animal
Antojitos Carmen
Attari
Babita
Bludso's
Border Grill
Bottega Louie
Bulgarini Gelato
Cacao
Campanile
Casa Bianca
Chang's Garden
Chego
Chichén Itzá
Chung King
Church & State
Ciro's
Comme Ça
Cut
Dae Bok
Din Tai Fung
Drago Centro
El Huarache Azteca
El Parian
Elvirita's
Euro Pane Bakery
Eva
Fab Hot Dogs
Father's Office
Fig
Gjelina
Golden Deli
Golden State
Good Girl Dinette
The Gorbals
Guelaguetza
Guisados
Huckleberry
Hungry Cat
Ink.
Jar
Jitlada
Kiriko
Kobawoo
La Casita Mexicana
Langer's
Larkin's
Lazy Ox Canteen
Le Comptoir
Little Dom's
Lou
Lucques
LudoBites
Lukshon
Mantee
Marouch
Mayura
Meals by Genet
Mélisse
Mezze
Mo-Chica
Mother Dough
Mozza
Musso & Frank Grill
Nem Nuong Khanh Hoa
Newport Tan Cang Seafood Restaurant
The Nickel
Night + Market
Oinkster
101 Noodle Express
Palate Food + Wine
Park's Barbecue
Picca
Playa
Pollos a la Brasa
Providence
Ray's
Red Medicine
Rivera
Rustic Canyon
Salt's Cure
Sapp Coffee Shop
Sea Harbour
Son of a Gun
Sotto
Spago
Spice Table
Street
Tacos Baja Ensenada
Tasting Kitchen
Terroni
Tsujita L.A.
Vincenti
Waterloo & City

Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.