Lee’s Tavern is part of a series of tidbits from the chapters of my book Bars, Taverns and Dives New Yorkers Love, published by Rizzoli. You can order it from Powell’s, Amazon, Rizzoli, and Barnes & Noble. Signed prints of all the bars in the book are available here.

Lee’s Tavern: a Family Place

There’s no sign out front at Lee’s Tavern, at the quiet corner of Staten Island’s Hancock and Garretson. They don’t need one. Everyone knows it’s there. Leroy Moresco opened it back in 1940, and everyone knows what it is: the local tavern in residential Dongan Hills, where everyone’s gone since they were little. It’s a family-friendly place, specializing in what may be the best pizza on Staten Island, if not all of New York City. I do not say this lightly. This pizza is good. So damn—

“You can’t curse here,” says owner Diego Palemine, who took over the operation after his mom and dad passed on. “We don’t allow cursing. We have families here.” Why would you curse? The place is great. It’s a cozy corner tavern with excellent food, an atmosphere of laid-back good cheer, and loaded with life and light from the huge windows that flank the entrance. Walk in and it sounds like fun and smells like pizza. Pizza loaded with tangy red sauce, fennelly sausage and fresh mozzarella.

There might be a game on TV above the bar, but mostly you hear the voices: people laughing, greeting each other with big, back-slapping hugs, asking about their mom, their kids, their aunt, and how’s she doin,’ by the way? Beyond the smallish bar in front you’ll find a couple dining rooms, with photos of Dongan Hillers on the walls—firemen, cops, softball teams—and plaques and trophies from past touch-tackle football championships. Come in for the first time, and leave feeling like a local, too. “Even if you don’t know someone you see here, you feel like you know ‘em,” Palemine says.

Next up:

Killmeyer’s Old Bavaria Inn of Staten Island: an unassuming neighborhood corner joint which serves one of the best dang pizzas in NYC, and another chapter of my book Bars, Taverns and Dives New Yorkers Love, which you can order right here. Limited-edition signed prints of the bars are available here.