The "828 Family Pizzeria" Story

Our pizza is a family tradition dating back to 1933. Great Uncle Patsy started the family’s first pizzeria when he expanded the offerings of his ice cream parlor to include the uniquely New York-Italian dish.

Patsy’s Pizzeria in Harlem originally used a coal-fired oven to create a crust that is thin and crisp on the outside. Today, our family’s fourth generation pizza-makers continue to use Patsy’s recipe to create a dish that is unlike anything else available outside New York.

With an heirloom method for creating the crust, we couldn’t use anything less than the best ingredients. We make our tomato sauce, along with many of our salad dressings and toppings, in-house with the freshest ingredients.

The oven at 828 is gas-fired and watched over by cooks who specialize in cooking pizzas using this unique method. As the pie cooks, it’s turned so that each side has an opportunity to face the open flame.

The cooks know the oven well enough to use hot or cool spots to insure that the pizza cooks evenly. The result shows a crust that has toasted areas and an overall golden finish, taste, and mouth-feel that is very different from the common pizza.

original pizzeria restaurant in Harlem NYC
patsys pizzeria in harlem
828 family pizzeria mother and sons
pizza in fire oven
828 family pizzeria restaurant interior
828 family pizzeria restaurant exterior