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Joe's Pizza
Joe's Pizza opened in 1975 in Greenwich Village, founded by Pino "Joe" Pozzuoli, an Italian immigrant from Naples, built around exactly the kind of no-frills, classic New York slice format that's become harder to find well-executed as the city's pizza scene has diversified into wood-fired Neapolitan spots and Sicilian squares. The restaurant briefly closed in 2005 before reopening, a genuine scare for a shop that had, by that point, already spent three decades building a reputation as one of the most reliable classic slices in Manhattan. New York Times critic Pete Wells later described Joe's as one of the reference points other "neoclassical slice-shop owners" specifically cite when they talk about emulating old-school New York pizza — a direct acknowledgment from a serious food critic that Joe's isn't just old, it's the standard newer places are trying to live up to. That reputation has held up specifically because Joe's hasn't chased trends — no elaborate topping combinations, no wood-fired Neapolitan pivot, just a well-executed, foldable New York slice sold fast out of a small Carmine Street storefront, the same basic format the shop opened with in 1975. For a New York pizza list, Joe's Pizza is the essential "the standard other places measure themselves against" entry — a fifty-year-old Greenwich Village slice shop that professional critics point to specifically when they want to describe what a serious classic New York slice is supposed to taste like.
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Prince Street Pizza
Prince Street Pizza opened in 2012 in Nolita, built around Sicilian family recipes passed down through the Morano family, operating on a specific culinary philosophy the restaurant has described simply: if you can put it on pasta, you can put it on pizza. That approach shows up most clearly in the shop's signature square slice, a thick, focaccia-like Sicilian-style pie that's a genuinely different eating experience from a classic thin New York triangle. The Spicy Spring — a square slice topped with spicy soppressata that curls and crisps at the edges as it bakes — has become the specific order most people mean when they talk about Prince Street Pizza, a dish specific enough to have its own reputation somewhat separate from the restaurant as a whole, driving lines down the block on a regular basis. That square-slice format sits in genuine contrast to the classic thin New York triangle that dominates most of the rest of this list — thicker, more bread-forward, built to carry a heavier topping load without going soggy, closer in spirit to a Sicilian nonna's home cooking than a coal-oven Neapolitan tradition. For a New York pizza list, Prince Street Pizza is the essential "the square slice, done right" entry — a Sicilian family recipe turned into one of the most specifically-ordered single dishes in the city's entire pizza scene.
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