Patsy's Pizzeria
This isn't New York's oldest pizzeria (that's yuppified Lombardi's, in NoLita), but it is the best, hands down. Patsy's Pizzeria occupies four storefronts, stretching nearly an entire First Avenue block in a shrinking Italian community in East Harlem (invite-only Rao's, said to have the best red sauce in the city, is just down the block), and serves up the world's most perfect pizza pies. And they know it. Gruff service, paper plates, sodas fished out of a coins-only machine, and red-checked paper plates constitute the decor of the dining room, while the slice counter sits in a cold stone box, decorated with a single shingle: "SLICE: 1.50." To the faithful, it reads like biblical verse.
Patsy's is a New York institution--it's even spawned its main rival for the pizza crown, Brooklyn's Patsy Grimaldi's. Francis Ford Coppola assembled the cast of the Godfather for the first time here. Police do not ticket the dozens of cars double- and triple-parked outside the store--if they're driving by, they're coming in too. The pies are very thin, served well-done, with exquisitely calibrated, half-sweet, half-tangy sauce. Don't be fooled by the many Manhattan spin-offs, the owners franchised the name years ago to restaurateurs less committed to the science of the perfect pie. Patsy's isn't just a pizza store, it's a revelation.
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