There are some pizza joints that demand return visits. We vow a return to the place by the bus station in Rome, but closer to home, there’s Leo’s Casa Calamari in Brooklyn.

The Casa never disappoints — except that one time in 2011 that it was closed after a fire broke out in the ventilation ducts and sent six firefighters to the hospital. We sat in our car — doubled-parked on Third Avenue — in silence and disbelief at the “CLOSED” sign in the window. Now, where were we going to eat before our long drive back to Boston???

We didn’t. We just couldn’t. After a stop for bread and biscotti at Paneantico Bakery a few blocks down, we blew out of Bay Ridge and didn’t stop for food until Exit 8 in Rhode Island. After the Casa, that panini at Panera Bread was just sloppy seconds.

Later that year, I lamented the loss of our Third Avenue pizza joint when I interviewed noted Brooklynite Tony Sirico, aka “Paulie Walnuts” of “The Sopranos” fame.

“I know that place,” he said, noting my distress. “They’ll be back. Don’t you worry.”

Buoyed by Sirico’s words, we returned to Casa Calamari this weekend, after paying our respects at historic Green-Wood Cemetery. There were new booths, tables and chairs, a wood bar and three flat-screens tuned to ESPN, but it still retained a little of its throwback feel. And the pizza was still outstanding.

Instead of calamari, we started with bowls of pasta fagioli made with tiny white beans and broken pasta, the tomato broth sopped up with a slice of scali bread. So good.

And then our piping hot pizza arrived. Even our waiter was excited about it.

“Look at this, huh,” he said, dropping the pan on its table stand. “You’re gonna love it.”

For our triumphant return, we chose a Sicilian-style Vegetalia — sauteed broccoli, spinach, mushrooms, oven-roasted tomatoes, mozzarella and a tomato-basil sauce. The crust was perfect.

We did love it, even though my husband would have preferred some sausage or pepperoni on his pie.  And we’ll love it some more today for lunch after a day digging in the dirt.

Grazie, Casa Calamari! See you next trip…

Leo’s Casa Calamari, 8602 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, 11209 (718) 921-1900

Tags: Brooklyn, Casa Calamari, Laura Raposa, Paneantico Bakery, Pizza, The Foodsmith