New York pizza is an institution unto itself, and while the thin and foldable NYC slice is the most famous, the small college town of Oneonta, NY — several miles northwest of Manhattan — is home to a unique invention: Cold cheese pizza. It turns out that college kids themselves are mostly responsible for this unusual pizza.

Cold cheese pizza, a slice of hot pizza topped with cold shredded cheese, was popularized in the 1980s at Tino's Pizza, which was often flooded with bar-hopping students from SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College. The protective layer of cold cheese prevented drunk and overeager kids from burning their mouths on piping-hot pies.

A Tino's-style cold cheese pizza is simple: Take a slice of standard pizza (thick crust, red sauce, and gooey melted cheese), and top it with a layer of cold, shredded mozzarella. At other places like Beto’s in Pittsburgh — which claims to be the real inventor of cold cheese pizza — they bake their pies naked and add only cold cheese on top.