Riko's Thin Crust Pizza opens second Long Island location, in Mineola

Proving that there are always undiscovered micro-niches for pizza, the slim, chewy pies from Riko's Thin Crust Pizza have landed in Mineola, about a year after the first Long Island location opened in Levittown.

The Connecticut-based chain has staked its corner of the pizzaverse with hot-oil pizza, a cheese pie drizzled in chili oil. There are at least nine other pies on the menu, from margherita to clam-bacon to a Hawaiian-style with ham and pineapple. There's also gluten-free pizza. The 13-inch pies ($9.95 to $15.75) cook for 10 minutes in a 500-degree gas-fired oven, leaving them decidedly more chewy than crisp.

If you want to dip your toes, so to speak, into hot-oil pizza before committing to an entire pie, slices are $3. The rest of the menu is given over to salads and customizable salad-topped pizzas, as well as baked wings and a few desserts.

The Mineola version of Riko's is a smaller, more takeout-focused version of its Levittown cousin, but those who decide to eat in will find a spiffy dining room with oversized vintage photos of the founders' families, a handful of tables, a flat-screen TV and a window counter, plus a few bistro tables outside. (The spot is a few blocks from Mineola's LIRR station, along Old Country Rd.).

The company started in Stamford, Conn. in 2011 — there are three locations in the state — and appears to be aggressively franchising, with Albany and eight other U.S. states as targets for new pizzerias.

Riko's Thin Crust Pizza is open daily at 124 Old Country Rd., Mineola, 516-214-0414. rikospizza.com