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.

Pietro Aletto, Promise Hospitality Group’s culinary director, said he was excited to bring NYC-style pizza to Ithaca for the first time. As the son of Italian immigrants, Aletto said he was eager to share authentic Italian cooking with an area he had already fallen in love with. 

“[People in Ithaca have been] a breath of fresh air,” Aletto said. “I couldn’t be more happy to be here because it’s been so easy to deal with everybody. Everyone’s been so happy and supportive. It’s different than Manhattan. I’ll be honest with you, people are rude. Here, everyone’s nice. It’s great.”

Patrons enjoy Patsy’s Pizzeria’s grand opening dinner Aug. 27. (Abigail Chesman)

Premtim Gjonbalic, founder and CEO of Promise Hospitality Group, said the company donates roughly 300,000 meals per month to nonprofit organizations in NYC. Gjonbalic said at Patsy’s ribbon-cutting that the company plans to continue their commitment to local service even as it expands northward. 

“We’re not here for a short time,” Gjonbalic said. “We’re here for a long time. We want to be members of the community.” 

Patrick Deely, the former food and beverage director at the Marriott Hotel, said Patsy’s community initiatives helped convince him to step into his current role as the pizzeria’s general manager. 

“I moved up here for a certain position [at the Marriott], and moved my family up here, and bought a house and my forever home,” Deely said. “I want to know that [Patsy’s has] something behind them, not just personally and financially, but morally.”

Deely said he wants Patsy’s to foster a warm environment — not only for the restaurant’s guests, but also for staff, serving as a “home away from home” for student employees struggling to settle into campus life. 

“My motto that I was always taught growing up, especially in the restaurants, is ‘welcome home,’” Deely said. “I want my staff and guests to be one and the same, where you’re going to get to know who they are, their wives, their husbands, their partners, their kids, know their birthdays or anniversaries.”

Many former Monk’s staff have stayed on as the space transitions to Patsy’s, populating the new incarnation of Deely’s “home” with familiar faces. Joseph Gerhart, executive chef at Monk’s, became the executive chef at Patsy’s. Siva Zakarenko, the bar manager at Monk’s, became the bar manager at Patsy’s. 

Patsy’s Pizzeria has served New York City since 1933 and claims to be the first to serve pizza by the slice.  (Abigail Chesman)

Gerhart, who found out about Marriott’s deal with Promise Hospitality Group only two days before the rest of the staff, said the news came as an exciting surprise. The team had under two months to transform Monk’s into Patsy’s, operating a partial restaurant with a mishmash of the two menus in the weeks leading up to Patsy’s opening. Gerhart said that while the process was disorientingly fast, it was also deeply rewarding. 

Zakarenko said Patsy’s unique story offers the space much-needed clarity. When he first joined the Monk’s staff four years ago, Zakarenko said the COVID-19 pandemic had scrambled the restaurant’s identity.

“We kind of lost our vision,” Zakarenko said. “And so when [Patsy’s] came on, it was like, ‘Let’s just do this new thing.’ We have new cocktails, a new cocktail program, a new wine program. Everything’s fresh.”

Patsy’s menu offers specialty cocktails, desserts, antipasti, salads, pasta and, of course, pizza. New flavors — signature pies like the Spicy ‘Nduja and the White Truffle — collide with the old classics like the Margherita and the Meatball. The various histories of each dish reflect the restaurant’s deep roots and fresh beginnings: 93-year-old recipes under a brand new awning. 

Gjonbalic said the future of Patsy’s in Ithaca is promising, if uncertain. 

“We’re really excited,” Gjonbalic said. “The future is bright. We want to stay. We want to be in Ithaca. So we’ll see what that looks like for us.”