Patsy's Pizzeria

The story

Patsy's claims to have originated the idea of selling pizza by the slice. Pasquale Lanceri opened this coal-oven pizzeria in Italian Harlem in 1933, having learned his craft at Lombardi's brick-walled coal oven. It stood alongside Lombardi's, Totonno's, and John's as one of New York's earliest. After Lanceri's death, his widow sold it in 1991 to Frank Brija, an Albanian from Kosovo, who trademarked the name and expanded into franchises. New York's pizza dynasties are now in their third and fourth generations, and counting.