How to eat pizza in New York

How do you eat a New York slice?

Fold it lengthwise down the middle, so the edges curl up into a trough, and eat from the tip toward the crust.

The fold does three jobs. It stiffens the thin center so the tip does not flop, it keeps the hot cheese and oil in the channel instead of on your shirt, and it frees your other hand. Hold the slice by the crust, press gently along the middle with a thumb, and tilt the tip slightly up.

Fresh from the oven, give it a minute. The cheese on a reheated counter slice is hotter than it looks. A paper plate underneath catches the drips, and a napkin dabbed on top is a matter of taste, not etiquette.

Do New Yorkers really fold their pizza?

At the slice counter, yes. Barack Obama gave the classic defence on The Tonight Show in December 2020: New York style wins for "being able to fold it, walk while you're eating."

Asked by Jimmy Fallon to settle New York versus Chicago, Obama said he loved Chicago deep dish but that the New York fold has "an efficiency element to it that I think puts it over the top." Deep dish, he added, is something you sit down and eat "like lasagna" (Time Out New York reported the exchange on 7 December 2020).

At a sit-down pizzeria with a whole pie on a stand, people eat with their hands too, just more slowly. The one place where a knife and fork make sense is a soft-centered Neapolitan pie, the style at the top of the 2026 rankings.

What is the difference between a slice shop and a whole-pie pizzeria?

A slice shop sells single slices from pies on the counter and warms yours up in the oven; a whole-pie pizzeria bakes every pie to order and sells no slices. Juliana's, Grimaldi's in Brooklyn, John's of Bleecker St and Lucali are whole-pie places.

This catches out a lot of visitors who queue at a famous name for a quick slice. Check before you line up:

How do you order pizza in New York?

Say "a plain" for a cheese slice, "a square" for a thick Sicilian slice, and "a pie" for a whole pizza. Toppings go in front: "a pepperoni slice", "a large pie with mushrooms".

• A slice: one wedge from a round pie, usually an eighth.
• A plain: a cheese slice, tomato sauce and mozzarella, nothing else. The default and the cheapest.
• A pie: the whole pizza. Nobody in New York orders "a whole pizza".
• A square: a rectangular slice from a sheet pan, thick and airy in the Sicilian style that made L&B famous.
• A grandma: a thinner square from Long Island, one of the four styles on the Williamsburg crawl.

At a counter, point, order, pay, and wait at the side while your slice goes back in the oven. At a sit-down coal-oven place, order the pie for the table, not one per person.

What do you put on pizza in NYC?

Whatever is in the shakers on the counter: red pepper flakes, dried oregano and grated parmesan. Add them yourself once the slice is on your plate.

The shakers are free and you are expected to help yourself. A pinch of oregano and a dusting of parmesan on a plain is the old-school way; pepper flakes go on everything. At the sit-down places, ask for what you want: Lucali, for one, sells a side of hot pepper sauce ($7) and toppings from $3 to $8.

Toppings on a whole pie go on before baking, so decide when you order. A sausage pie has a famous fan: Juliana's says Frank Sinatra liked his with sausage.

How do you deal with pizza lines and oven breaks?

Arrive at opening or between the breaks, and know the stoking pauses: Juliana's closes from 3:15 to 4 p.m. and Grimaldi's pauses pizza from 4 to 5 p.m. Lucali starts its waitlist at 4 p.m.

Coal ovens need stoking: fresh coal on the fire bed and the ash cleared so the fire stays at about 850°F. Juliana's rings a loud bell when it is time. It takes its last lunch order at 3:15 p.m. and reopens at 4 p.m., and it seats complete parties only, so wait until your whole group is there. It takes no reservations, offers shade and water on hot days, and suggests an umbrella if rain is forecast.

• Grimaldi's: open from 11 a.m. daily, until 10 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 11 p.m. Friday to Sunday; waitlist or phone reservations.
• Lucali: open 5 to 11 p.m., closed Tuesday. Put your name down from 4 p.m., first come, first served.
• Totonno's: weekends only for takeout and delivery, and it sells out, so go early.

Or skip the queue math entirely with a guide who knows the shops. The Cobble Hill walk ends close to Carroll Gardens, Lucali's neighborhood.

What is the 3/8 rule for pizza?

A party-ordering formula, not a New York custom: plan three slices per guest and divide by eight slices per pie. Twenty guests need 60 slices, or 7.5 pies, so order 8.

The Daily Dot wrote it up in February 2024, crediting Take & Bake Pizza with the three-slices-per-guest idea, which Hungry Howie's also backs. It is a handy rule for an office lunch.

In New York, adjust it down. A New York pie runs 18 to 24 inches, so each of its eight slices is big. Two slices is a full meal for most people, and a large coal-oven pie feeds two hungry adults or three on a pizza crawl.

How do you do a DIY pizza route in DUMBO after the Brooklyn Bridge?

Walk the bridge from City Hall, share one coal-oven pie at Juliana's or Grimaldi's, add a square at L&B on Old Fulton Street, and take the F train home from York Street.

1. Morning, the bridge. Start near City Hall and walk the Brooklyn Bridge into DUMBO. The guided bridge walk meets at Warren St and Broadway, takes 2 hours and ends at Time Out Market.
2. 11 to 11:30 a.m., the pie. Grimaldi's (1 Front St) opens at 11 a.m., Juliana's (19 Old Fulton St) at 11:30 a.m. Pick one, share a whole pie, and be done before the 3:15 p.m. break.
3. After lunch, a square. L&B Spumoni Gardens' DUMBO branch at 46 Old Fulton St, for a Sicilian square or a spumoni.
4. Walk it off. Brooklyn Bridge Park and Jane's Carousel are at the water's edge, steps away.
5. Home. The F train stops at York Street in DUMBO.

Rather have someone else order? The Heights and DUMBO food tour includes a full Grimaldi's slice among five tastings. To settle Grimaldi's vs Juliana's, read our side-by-side guide.

A guided walk over the Brooklyn Bridge into DUMBO, past Jane's Carousel and the Manhattan Bridge photo spot. No food included: it ends a few minutes from Juliana's, Grimaldi's and L&B.

★ 4.8 · 2 hours · from $32

Explore the Brooklyn Bridge walk → Tour details

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