Patsy's Pizzeria (East Harlem)

Pasquale "Patsy" Lancieri opened this coal-oven pizzeria on First Avenue in 1933, when East Harlem was the city's biggest Italian neighborhood, and the original room is still here — tile floor, old photographs, and a coal oven that has been burning since the Depression. Frank Sinatra was a regular; the thin, charred, almost austere pie he came for has barely changed.

The name spread to franchises across the city and beyond, but this storefront between 117th and 118th is the source. There is a sit-down room and a takeout window next door where a plain slice costs about what a slice should. It pairs naturally with a walk through what remains of Italian East Harlem, Rao's corner included.