Brooklyn Roots Italian has only existed in Bay Ridge for a few years (and in Sunset Park for a few years before that), but if you told us it has been around for a century, we’d believe you. The place has all the makings of an old-school Italian restaurant: The portions are massive, everyone sounds like they could be an extra on The Sopranos, and the servers wear shirts that literally say Old-School Italian. (OK, maybe that’s a little on the nose.) It’s a casual, festive place that’s a shoe-in for a big group dinner, especially if you get the Matty Guns Special, a vodka pasta (rich on its own) with sweet and hot sausage, meatballs, whipped ricotta, and fresh mozzarella. But you could just as easily snag a seat at the bar, meet someone who’s lived in the area since kindergarten, and be convinced by the bartender to order the bread pudding, which is in fact a must.