Harry’s Italian Pizza Bar: Old Fashioned Square Pizza in Battery Park City

Outdoor seating in front of Harry’s Italian Pizza Bar in Battery Park City, Manhattan.

It's been called Goldman Alley, that passageway between Murray Street and Vesey Street in Battery Park City, a reference, of course, to the retail- and restaurant-explosion sparked by (insisted upon by?) the Goldman Sachs headquarters that recently opened at the north end of this community. Newly-covered in a clever, tiled-glass canopy–designed by Preston Scott Cohen and called "one of the best new works of architecture in New York" by none other than Michael Kimmelman of the New York Times–and featuring a great line-up of casual eateries and food shops (not to mention the 11-screen Regal movie theater), what could have been a workmanlike passageway has been transformed instead into a pleasant, light, and comfortable gathering place for the neighborhood, including the luxury highrise Manhattan apartmentTribeca Bridge Tower, right across the street. 

Old Fashioned Square Pizza at Harry’s Italian Pizza Bar in NYC.

Old Fashioned Square Pizza at Harry's Italian Pizza Bar

Of course we've had lots of satisfying meals at Danny Meyer's Battery Park City Shake Shack, which anchors the north end of the "alley", but the other night before a movie we decided to try the newish Harry's Italian Pizza Bar, intrigued mostly by the "Old Fashioned Square" pizzas at almost every table, which reminded us of the fantastic rectangular pies over at Adrienne's Pizza on Stone Street. Anyway, as it turns out, Harry's Italian Pizza Bar is NOT any threat to Adrienne's in the Best NYC Pizza, Square Pie division, contest, but it is a plausible option if you're weary of the burger-fries-concrete meal next door. 

5 leaf salad at Harry's Italian Pizza Bar in Battery Park City, Manhattan.

We had half-extra cheese, half-sausage on our Battery Park City Harry's Italian Old Fashioned Square pizza pie, and both halves worked just fine, with a nice balance of sauce and toppings, of salty and sweet, and the crust was okay, crunchy in all the right places. Maybe it could have used a bit longer in the oven, with some more charring, and the whole thing turned inexplicably cold before we could even get through our second slice (true, we were outside, but it was a warm evening)… but if you go in to Harry's Italian with reasonable expectations, you should be okay. Our salad was actually quite good, a "5 Leaf" number, topped with cheese and balsamic, that over-performed. And we heard that the pastas, of which there are plenty on the Harry's Italian menu, are definitely worth trying.  

Battery Park City Harry's Italian in the passageway between Murray and Vesey Streets.

Harry's Italian Pizza Bar Battery Park City Details 

Harry Italian has a location in Rockefeller Center, as well as one in the heart of the Financial District, on Gold Street. You'll find the Battery Park City Harry's Italian in the passageway between Murray and Vesey Streets, and it's open every day for lunch and dinner, until 1:00 a.m. on weeknights, and until 2:00 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. For more information, including a look at the complete Harry's Italian menu, please see the restaurant's website, here.    

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