Photo by: Vivian Maier

The original Little Italy. Jewish Harlem. Spanish Harlem. El Barrio. East Harlem. This historically rich Manhattan neighborhood, spanning north of 96th Street to 146th Street from 5th Avenue all the way East to the river, has been through several metamorphoses. Originally a predominantly German area, by 1930, East Harlem experienced a demographic turnaround when Irish, Italian, and Eastern European immigrants moved into its buildings. Little Italy, one certainly more authentic than the one on Mulberry Street, used to be in East Harlem. It had three times the amount of people that the newer Little Italy has today (Crain). In its Italian heyday, East Harlem buzzed with lively Italian culture and of course, food from pioneer restaurants like Patsy’s Pizzeria. In 1933, back when the streets of East Harlem heard nothing less than the bustling sounds of Italian immigrants, Pasquale “Patsy” Lancieri opened Patsy’s Pizzeria on First Avenue and 118th Street with his wife, Carmela. It became one of the earliest pizzerias in New York City and it has been said that Patsy originated the concept of selling pizza by the slice. Though Patsy’s still exists today, the Italian population has been reduced to just a small community nestled between 114th and 116th Streets on Pleasant Avenue (Horowitz). Truly a surviving storefront, this traditional pizzeria continues to thrive in the ever-changing East Harlem.

In 1930, about 89,000 Italians lived in low quality tenements all over East Harlem. Though they were living in such crowded places, the immigrants of this neighborhood found ways to bring the comfort of familiar cuisine into a new country. Patsy and Carmela Lancieri opened Patsy’s Pizza in 1933 in an attempt to bring traditional, coal-oven pizza to their fellow Italian immigrants. Tenements popped up left and right in an attempt to keep up with the fast-growing immigrant populations. The Jewish immigrants residing in the western part of East Harlem moved into West Harlem completely, leaving behind Italian immigrants. In this 1943 profile of Jefferson Park in East Harlem, it is clear that the neighborhood was filled to its brim with white immigrants. Of the 36,426 foreign-born whites, most were Italians who decided to live in the most densely populated district in New York City. With many “lower grade apartment buildings, tenements and rooming houses,” immigrants were able to start their American dream with easy access to cheap housing, bargain shopping stores, and of course, people who shared their culture. Further up north in Harlem Bridge, about 8,000 more Italians inhabit the neighborhood, which echoes the same low average income and old apartments/tenements.

Photo by: Ephemeral New York

Where is this uptown Little Italy now? After World War I, the Puerto Rican immigrant population grew and by 1950, below 125th Street, East Harlem had transformed into Spanish Harlem, El Barrio. As Italians moved out to the Bronx, Brooklyn, Upstate New York, and New Jersey, eventually, all of East Harlem became Spanish Harlem. This new neighborhood brought with it a wave of new businesses like bodegas and botanicas, which catered to the needs of many Hispanic families. La Marqueta, a bustling outside market in the middle of El Barrio was the go-to place for fruits, vegetables, and other household products. Basking in its heyday, East Harlem was not prepared for the chaos that would come about under the disguise of mere public housing work. In an attempt to better house the growing population of the neighborhood, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) built affordable housing that would not interfere with the creation of more public space in the neighborhood. However, caught up in a fiscal bind, the city began selling public space to luxury housing developers that did not want anything to do with the lower-class immigrant populations living in East Harlem. Lower-income families were again pushed into tenements which were poorly kept and were targets for arson. Urban blight infected the neighborhood as race riots, drugs, crime, and poverty seeped into the once lively East Harlem. Many of the remaining Italian families left Spanish Harlem as buildings were burned down and destroyed.

Unfortunately, Patsy passed away in the 1970s leaving Carmela to take care of the business, with some help from her daughter. In 1991, Carmela reached her 80s and no longer felt like she could handle the business. Patsy’s was suffering because of high crime rates in the neighborhood as the number of murders in New York City rose to a record high (Cooper). According to a study done at the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York, in 1990, Harlem’s NYPD Precinct 28 ranked second among the precincts with the highest homicide rates and second among those with the highest cocaine consumption. East Harlem’s 25^th Precinct had a murder rate of 104.53 per 100,000 in 1991 (Chauhan, Kois).

Carmela no longer felt like she could revitalize Patsy’s considering the conditions in and surrounding her community. So, instead of passing it down to her daughter, who was also reaching old age, she sold the business to Frank Brija, a young, Albanian East Harlem resident who had worked at Patsy’s for years. Though he was surprised Carmela was selling the business, with the recipes he learned from the Lancieris and the trust given to him, Frank took over and began his mission to breathe life back into the restaurant.

Photo by: Geraldine Camille Perral

Brija worked hard to keep Patsy’s traditional look and service in order to honor the name and reputation the Lancieri’s have established for their beloved business. Fortunately, the pizzeria garnered more fame and more customers as the neighborhood improved. Currently, Adem has turned over most of the control of Patsy’s to his son Adem Brija, a Fordham University graduate who is also a devoted member of East Harlem’s Community Board 11.

An Albanian father and son team owning a traditional, New York style, Italian pizzeria may sound weird, but Adem has an explanation for this strange match. “Albanian food isn’t the greatest food in the world so [Albanians] own Italian restaurants instead,” he says. “Probably more Italian restaurants in New York and New Jersey are owned by Albanians more than anyone else, including Italians!” Now, that’s a shocking statement. Adem tells me his father has always loved Italian food as evident in the fact that he has worked in pizzerias his whole life. After Frank settled down with his wife on 115th Street of East Harlem, Patsy’s became his life; though it was not in great shape, it still had the long history and established name that gave him hope for rejuvenation.

Adem grew up in and around Patsy’s. His parents separated when he was young, but he would always come around to the pizzeria, especially in the summer, to work as a busboy, which he admits, he was not too happy about. However, while studying marketing and management at Fordham, he decided to take all his classes two days a week so he could help run the business because he felt that Frank “ran everything by himself, which was a lot – maybe too much.” Adem tells me, “I love food. I’m not the greatest cook, but I know how things should taste and I know how to make a good menu.” Now, Adem runs 15 franchises and the original East Harlem Patsy’s location. Though I would disagree considering our lively conversation, Adem admits he struggles with making small talk with patrons so he “stays more on the business side.” Amidst all the paperwork he has to do, Adem sets aside time to go on some “Undercover Boss” type missions. If he sees 3 star reviews or below on Yelp, he goes into a franchise to observe the service and judge the food. When asked about the difference between running the East Harlem location and the other restaurants, he says, “franchising is different because it’s not just worrying about whether or not someone’s pasta is cooked right. But, you also can’t forget those little details because if the food isn’t good, it doesn’t matter if you have the best location or ambiance, you fail.” One example he gives is a franchise in a mall in Long Island, which did a beautiful job with decoration, but did not capture the Patsy’s pizza taste. “They got so caught up in the construction and the bells and the whistles that they forgot the most important thing. So I didn’t let them open until it came out right consistently,” he says of the situation.

Photo by: Brownie from blondieandbrownie.com

In Adem’s vision, none of the franchises will ever be like the East Harlem location because it stands alone “marching to the beat of its own drum.” He confesses to avoiding painting and fixing it up because of the older customers. When I asked him to explain, he said, “you know, we have 90 year old people telling us they came here in 1941 and their dad brought them here and Frank Sinatra was sitting a table over. If you start to fix it too much, you alienate them. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it if it’ll keep people happy.” Walking around the Patsy’s in East Harlem, it is easy to see that it is not a busy restaurant strip, which makes the fact that it has been able to survive and thrive through years of changes so much more impressive. This is apparent in the fact that more than half of their workers have been there for at least 10 years; this ensures familiar faces and a cozy third place.

He also attributes the restaurant’s success to the community. East Harlem has welcomed them with open arms and has supported them to the point that Adem says the worst issue Patsy’s faces is probably just the traffic on First Avenue that makes it hard for people to find parking and stop by. Gentrification does not scare him because he says, “we’ve been in this community for so long; we love it, it loves us. We know everybody there. If you told me I could move it downtown or in Union Square in a snap, I would say no – it is perfect where it is.” According to Adem, the community is the backbone of his business and that the only reason he has no fears is because the community protects Patsy’s. “A business would not succeed without the community’s support. East Harlem is still tight-knit and that’s something that’s helped us.” His ownership of the property and the fact that many of his patrons come from outside of the neighborhood – tourists and residents of the suburbs, give him comfort when he says, “Call me confident, but this place is going to be fine as long as we continue to sell the pizza the way we do – coal oven, fresh ingredients, no corners cut. Also, it’s pizza! Everyone loves pizza!” I would say it also does not hurt that celebrities like Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively have not only visited but also posted on Instagram about Patsy’s delicious pizza saying, “I want to be cremated in this oven.”

Photo by: Cindy Liang

As a community board member, Adem worries about gentrification stealing the neighborhood feeling he has grown up with. Being a hardcore East Harlem resident, he hopes that when it does happen, the institutions that come in will actually be those the community needs and of course, that none of the residents who have given life to El Barrio are displaced. Currently, El Barrio has one of the highest concentrations of Puerto Ricans in New York City. But with all the ethnic succession that has happened in East Harlem, it is not a surprise that a growing Mexican population with its own Little Pueblo on Third Avenue is threatening Puerto Rican dominance. Dominican entrepreneurs have also been moving into the neighborhood to take over the commercial scene. Whatever happens next, the process of revitalization in East Harlem bears fruit that is definitely evident in the lack of abandoned buildings, greater focus on beautification, and greater funding for old successes like La Marqueta (from institutions like the City’s Regional Economic Development Council). It serves as an entry-level immigrant neighborhood with places like the 116th Street Shopping Strip that cater to Hispanic audiences with names like Casa Latina Music Shop and Cuchifritos Frituras. It is the birthplace of Salsa. It is the home of El Museo del Barrio. It is a surviving community of Hispanic immigrants that have created businesses and a new culture for themselves in a new country. Even though crime rates have definitely decreased, Adem fears that this will attract wealthier newcomers to the community to jumpstart an ethnic succession in reverse.

A “rising East Harlem” in 2013 saw developers making multimillion dollar investments into the neighborhood as Hunter College’s Silberman School for Social Work and displaced residents caused by rent hikes opened up the door for housing developments that Patsy’s customers cannot afford. All in an attempt to connect East Harlem to its bougie neighbor, the Upper East Side, gentrification has started as luxury housing begins to take over a low-income, immigrant community. The only thing saving East Harlem’s small businesses from a total turnaround caused by the addition of national chain stores is the lack of large retail spaces. However, as rent prices rise higher and higher, shopping strips like 116th Street with its unique, lively personality may be in danger. Adem realizes that the fact that his business stands alone without much competition and his ownership of the building are two very big reasons for Patsy’s success and survival so, he makes sure to always worry more about his community than his business because unfortunately, not everyone has it as easy as he does.

In his committees and the decisions he makes concerning East Harlem at CB11, he reminds himself not to think about his business because it is not the one in danger – the community is. “I told myself that I would use my experience in running a business and in having property to help fellow committee members understand certain things, but I know to keep the two separate. Where you’re born and where you live is more important than your business because that’s not who you are.” One thing Adem said almost made me snap my fingers like I would at a spoken word event: “Fortunately, I was born lucky. I don’t take for granted what I have. I mean, obviously I went to school and worked hard, but I was lucky enough to have opportunities I didn’t work for. My dad worked hard. Because of all that, I tell myself, you know what, I don’t need to look out for me, somebody looked out for me enough. I have to look out for other people.” Following in his dad’s footsteps, he dedicates himself to serving the community that has shown his family so much loyalty, trust, and support.

References:

Chauhan, Preeti, and Lauren Kois. Homicide by Neighborhood: Mapping New York City’s Violent Crime Drop. Research and Evaluation Center. John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York. Web. 1 May 2016.

Cooper, Michael. “Crime Count: Which Areas Are Safest?” The New York Times. The New York Times, 1999. Web. 01 June 2016.

“Manhattan’s One-time Biggest Little Italy.” Ephemeral New York. 2011. Web. 01 June 2016.

Horowitz, Craig. “Rebuilding the Barrio.” NYMag.com. New York Magazine. Web. 01 June 2016.

Liang, Cindy. Food in East Harlem. El Barrio. Macaulay E-portfolios. Web. 1 May 2016.

Satow, Julie. “Developers Are Making Bets on a Rising East Harlem.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 2013. Web. 01 June 2016.