Every argument about the best pizza NYC has to offer eventually collapses into an argument about Brooklyn. The more useful exercise is to take the city as it is actually laid out: five boroughs, five counters, each giving you a different reason to make the trip. None of these is a reservation restaurant. All of them are places where you stand, order by the slice or the pie, and eat within a few minutes of paying.
Tell Karpo which borough you will be in and how much time you have, and it will pick the slice counter that is open, reachable and worth the ride from where you already are.
What follows is one slice per borough, chosen for being worth the journey rather than for winning a poll, with the operational details that decide whether you arrive to a hot tray or a locked door.
Manhattan — Joe's Pizza, Carmine Street
Joe's has been at 7 Carmine Street since 1975, opened by Joe Pozzuoli, who came from Naples, and it is the reference point most New Yorkers reach for when they say plain slice. It is not a destination in the sense of requiring a plan. It is a doorway, a counter, a slice handed over on a paper plate, and nowhere much to sit.
The detail that makes it genuinely useful is the closing time. The Carmine Street shop runs into the early hours, until 4 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, which makes it one of the few dependable late options in the West Village once the rest of the neighborhood has shut.
Order the plain first. The fresh mozzarella slice is the upgrade, but the plain is what the reputation rests on, and comparing the two in one visit teaches you more about New York pizza than any ranking will.
Brooklyn — Paulie Gee's Slice Shop, Greenpoint
Paulie Gee's Slice Shop sits at 110 Franklin Street, on the corner of Noble, and is deliberately not the same thing as the wood-fired Paulie Gee's around the corner. This is the counter version: classic New York rounds and square Sicilian-style slices, eaten standing or taken outside.
The one to order is the Hellboy — pepperoni with hot honey — which also comes as a square. It is the slice that made the shop's name, and a fair test of whether you actually like the sweet-and-hot register that has spread across so much of Brooklyn pizza.
It runs to 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday and closes at 10 p.m. the rest of the week. Greenpoint is a short walk from the Nassau Avenue G or a quick ride from Bedford Avenue on the L, which makes this an easy addition to a night in north Brooklyn rather than a special trip.
Queens — New Park Pizza, Howard Beach
New Park Pizza at 156-71 Cross Bay Boulevard has been baking in a brick oven since 1956, and it is the strongest argument on this list for the outer-borough journey. The house style is generous with cheese over a well-seasoned crust, and the plain slice does not hedge.
Howard Beach is a real ride from Manhattan. The A train goes there directly, but budget most of an hour each way. That is the trade, and it is also why this slice tastes the way it does: almost everyone eating it lives nearby.
If you are flying out of JFK, this is the best detour on the way, because Howard Beach is the AirTrain transfer. A slice before a flight is a far better use of an hour than a terminal.
The Bronx — Louie & Ernie's, Schuylerville
Louie & Ernie's occupies the ground floor of a white frame house at 1300 Crosby Avenue, on a residential street with no passing trade, and it is the most neighborhood-feeling room here. The sausage slice is the order — fennel-heavy pork in generous chunks, sharp cheese, a thin base that holds it.
Two constraints decide the trip. It is cash only, and it closes at 8 p.m. on weeknights, half an hour later on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. This is a lunch or early-dinner plan, and arriving at nine is a wasted journey from anywhere in the city.
The 6 train to Westchester Square is the practical approach, then a short bus or a ten-minute walk. Pair it with City Island in summer and the afternoon justifies itself.
Staten Island — Joe & Pat's, Castleton Corners
Joe & Pat's at 1758 Victory Boulevard is where the cracker-thin Staten Island style is best explained. The crust is thin to the point of snapping, the sauce is bright, and the vodka pie is the thing the island argues about with everyone else's version of it.
The hours are the friendliest on this list: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. It is the only entry here you can build a genuinely late dinner around without watching the clock.
Getting there is the commitment. The free Staten Island Ferry takes about twenty-five minutes from Lower Manhattan, then a bus west along Victory Boulevard. Treat the ferry as part of the outing rather than an obstacle and this becomes the most scenic pizza trip in New York.
Practical notes
Three of these five are meaningfully far from Midtown, so pair them with something else rather than treating them as an errand — City Island with the Bronx, the ferry and the north shore with Staten Island, the AirTrain with Howard Beach. Carry cash: Louie & Ernie's takes nothing else, and small counters elsewhere often prefer it. Check hours on the day rather than the week before, because slice shops adjust seasonally and the outer-borough rooms close earlier than visitors expect. Slices reheat badly, so order what you will finish standing there instead of carrying a box across the city. Groups of four or more should ask for a whole pie where the shop makes one, since it is usually better value and comes out of the oven rather than off the warming shelf. And if a first choice is shut, take the fallback on the same subway line rather than the next name on a ranking.
Tags: #bestpizzanyc #nycpizza #pizzabyborough #joespizza #pauliegees #newparkpizza #louieandernies #joeandpats #bronxeats #queenseats #statenisland #greenpoint #nycfood #nycslice
Sources consulted: newparkpizza.com · louieanderniespizza.com · joeandpatsny.com · en.wikipedia.org
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Ask Karpo first
Want to know which of these is still open, how long the ride really takes from where you are, and whether you need cash before you set off? Ask Karpo for current hours across the five boroughs, a low-friction slice route from your side of the city, and a nearby fallback if the counter you wanted has already closed.
