Two fifty-four South Second Street is a small slice counter in South Williamsburg with a queue that regularly extends onto the pavement, and the reason is one item: a slice topped with prosciutto and burrata that has become the thing people cross boroughs for. The counter runs from noon until ten at night, every day of the week, with no closed day and no split service.
Karpo can tell you how far the L'Industrie queue is stretching right now and whether the Christopher Street counter is the faster route to the same slice.
The burrata slice, and what it is doing
The prosciutto and burrata slice pairs a cured, salty, thin-sliced ham with fresh burrata added after the bake, and the contrast is the entire point. The burrata is not cooked — it goes on at the end, so it stays loose and creamy against the salt and the crisp base rather than melting into the cheese layer.
That construction is also why the slice does not travel. Ten minutes in a paper bag and the burrata has warmed and slumped and the base underneath it has gone soft. This is a slice to eat within arm's reach of the counter, which is inconvenient given the queue and non-negotiable given the physics.
The base is doing more work than the topping
It would be easy to dismiss this as a counter that got famous for putting an expensive cheese on a pizza. The reason it is actually good is the base — properly fermented, with a chew and a blistered edge that most slice shops do not attempt, because a long ferment is a scheduling burden that a high-volume counter usually cannot carry.
Order a plain or a simple red slice alongside the burrata one on your first visit. It costs a few dollars and it tells you whether you are eating at a good pizzeria or at a marketing exercise. In this case the plain slice answers the question comfortably, which is why the place has held its reputation rather than peaking.
The queue, and how it behaves
The line is worst between about six and eight in the evening and on weekend afternoons, and it moves in bursts because the counter is serving from finished pies. A queue of fifteen can clear surprisingly fast; a queue of five behind someone ordering four pies for a party will not.
The genuinely quiet window is early afternoon on a weekday, roughly between the noon open and about half past four. Same counter, same slices, no pavement queue. If you have any flexibility at all, that is when to go, and it is also when you can actually stand somewhere sensible to eat.
Noon to ten, every day
The seven-day, noon-to-ten schedule is worth appreciating because it removes almost all of the planning friction that the rest of New York's celebrated pizza imposes. There is no closed Tuesday, no waitlist, no reservation window and no seasonal variation.
The limitation is at the late end rather than the early one. Ten at night is not a late-night slice counter in a neighbourhood that goes considerably later than that, so this is a dinner and afternoon proposition, not a two-in-the-morning one. Williamsburg has other answers for that hour.
The Manhattan sibling
There is a second L'Industrie at 104 Christopher Street in the West Village, and it is the reason a lot of Manhattan-based people no longer make the trip to Brooklyn. The menu logic is the same and the location solves the geography if you are already on that side of the river.
If you are choosing between them purely on queue length, check both. The Christopher Street counter draws a different crowd on a different rhythm, and there are plenty of evenings when the Village line is short while the Williamsburg one is out the door, and vice versa.
South Williamsburg around it
South Second Street sits below the main Bedford Avenue drag, in a stretch that is quieter and considerably less trafficked than the Williamsburg most visitors see. The Marcy Avenue station on the J, M and Z lines is close, and the Bedford Avenue L stop is a longer walk north.
That location is genuinely useful. You are a short walk from the waterfront parks, from Domino Park, and from the bridge approach, which means a slice here fits naturally into a walking afternoon rather than being a destination you travel to and then leave from.
What to order if you are only here once
One plain slice and one prosciutto and burrata slice, eaten in that order, standing near the counter. That is the visit. It costs very little, it takes fifteen minutes including the queue at an off hour, and it tells you everything about whether this counter deserves the reputation it has.
If you are buying a whole pie for a group, order ahead by phone and accept that the burrata topping is not the one to choose for transport. A red pie travels; the fresh-cheese slice does not, and ordering six of them for a picnic is a mistake people make exactly once.
- Address: 254 South 2nd Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211, in South Williamsburg
- Hours: noon to 10:00 PM, seven days a week
- The signature: prosciutto and burrata slice, with the burrata added after the bake
- Order alongside it: a plain or simple red slice, to judge the base on its own
- Quietest window: weekday early afternoon, roughly noon to 4:30 PM
- Busiest: 6:00-8:00 PM and weekend afternoons; the queue moves in bursts
- Manhattan sibling: 104 Christopher Street in the West Village, same menu, different queue pattern
- Getting there: Marcy Avenue on the J, M and Z lines; Bedford Avenue on the L is a longer walk
Tags: #PizzaNearMe #NewYorkCity #LIndustrie #Williamsburg #BurrataSlice #Brooklyn #SouthSecondStreet #SliceShop #NYCEats #NeighborhoodGuide #BrooklynPizza #Pizzeria #Prosciutto
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Ask Karpo first
Ask Karpo how long the queue at L'Industrie is right now, whether the Christopher Street counter is quieter, and what else in South Williamsburg is worth combining with the walk.
