Joe & Pat's Pizzeria & Restaurant • 1960

Brothers Giuseppe and Pasquale Pappalardo brought a secret Neapolitan dough recipe from Naples to Staten Island in 1960, creating what pizza historians credit as the Staten Island style: cracker-thin crust with cubed low-moisture mozzarella that caramelizes into bubbly, browned globs. Three generations later, the Pappalardo family still works the ovens, turning out vodka pies with chunky tomato sauce and plain pies where exposed red sauce gets sweet and crispy at the edges. The thin crust shatters under your fork, and the family still guards that original dough recipe.