Where to get New York-style slices in the Twin Cities

Mesa Pizza filled a very specific void, and the closing of its slice shops in Dinkytown and Uptown hits hard for generations of hungry students, last-call dwellers and anyone who just needed something hot and substantial at 1 a.m. It was also a place where a $5 slice could taste like home, especially if you grew up on East Coast corner joints serving up that familiar blend of thin, floppy crust, lots of red sauce and generous gooey mozzarella.

Now that the ovens have gone cold, the question is where those slice-seekers should go next. There are plenty of great options we’ve covered before — ElMar’s, Joey Nova’s, Hello Pizza, Broders’ Cucina Italiana. Here are a few more spots that fill that same need: big, satisfying slices that show up for you when you need them most.

This is classic New York-style pizza by the slice, served fast and without fuss. The downtown Minneapolis skyway locations are the very best safety net for workers in a lunch emergency. The Dinkytown Frank & Andrea location keeps late hours for a University of Minnesota-heavy clientele — sometimes until 3 a.m. — making it the obvious heir to Mesa’s late-night throne. The slices are wide and foldable, the toppings are plentiful, and the operation is built for volume. (And the Philly-style cheesesteaks are tops, too.)

Minneapolis skyway: 225 S. 6th St., 330 2nd Av. S., 811 LaSalle Av.; Frank & Andrea: 1235 SE. 4th St., Mpls., andreapizza.com

From the same ownership as another New York-style favorite, Tonka Bay’s Joey Nova’s, but with its own personality, Pizza Novara hits a New York-adjacent sweet spot: big slices, thin but substantial crust, and a deep menu of other Italian-American classics.

8170 26th Av. S., Bloomington, pizzanovara.com

East Coast transplants in the East Metro swear by this slice shop, easy (and forgivable) to confuse with the Pino’s in downtown St. Paul and White Bear Lake and with Nino’s in Maplewood. Turns out they all hail from different branches of the same family, and they all are holding down the art of extra-large pizza-making. The Woodbury pizzeria is our pick of the bunch.