Elegance @ $1.75 Per Slice

The picture above is the extent of the menu at the take-out side of Patsy's pizzeria up in New York City's Harlem. No toppings or variations here (although they are available in the dining room next door). We visited Patsy's as part of a restaurant crawl we did with the publication AM New York, which wanted us to select a few of our Gotham favorites from the newly-published book, 500 Things to Eat Before It's Too Late. We started at Patsy's, then visited the Second Avenue Deli, Pearl Oyster Bar and Kossar's Bialys. The stand-up, semi-al fresco snack at Patsy's reminded us just how excellent a simple slice of New York pizza can be, its crust so fine that it verges on fragile, the toppings applied sparingly enough so as not to overwhelm the charcoal goodness of that crust. This is not a hugely abundant or filling pizza, but it is, in our opinion, one of the greats: simple, delicious and truly elegant -- a good hors d'oeuvre for the pastrami sandwiches, lobster rolls, chowder, and bialys and bulky rolls that followed.