What makes an authentic New York City-style slice of pizza? Is it the thin crust? The slightly charred bottom? The way the grease stains the paper plates? The perfect amount of structural integrity — not too floppy, but not so rigid that it cannot be folded into a triangle?
Whatever the magical combination of characteristics that make NYC’s pizza unique, many credit the original NYC slice to Patsy’s Pizzeria, an East Harlem restaurant that first opened in 1933. The brick-oven pizzeria, which claims to be the first to sell pizza by the slice, served as a favorite spot for Italian-American celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Joe DiMaggio and helped inspire the movie “The Godfather.” However, the atmosphere of Patsy’s Ithaca branch is slightly too high-end to offer pizza by the slice like their southern predecessors.
This fall, the Ithaca Marriott Downtown on the Commons is partnering with Promise Hospitality Group, a company that sources food and beverages to hotels across the country, to bring Patsy’s urban taste to the Finger Lakes region. The Ithaca branch of Patsy’s Pizzeria opened Aug. 27 on 120 South Aurora Street, operating out of the hotel’s ground floor, which previously hosted the restaurant and bar Monks on the Commons…