L'Industrie opened on South 2nd Street in Williamsburg in 2017 and spent several years being the pizza that people who care about pizza sent other people to. It is now three shops — the original, a West Village location that opened in 2023, and a Little Italy counter added in 2026 — and that expansion changes the practical advice more than it changes the pizza.
Three counters in three boroughs' worth of foot traffic means the queue you have heard about is not necessarily the queue you will stand in. Ask Karpo which L'Industrie is closest and moving, and what else is worth eating on that block while you decide.
The slice that did it
The burrata slice is the one. A plain-ish slice comes out of the oven, and a ball of burrata is torn over it while it is still hot, so the cheese stays cool and loose against the crust rather than melting into it. The contrast is the whole idea: hot, tangy tomato underneath, cold milky cheese on top, basil and oil over that.
It works because the base is good enough to carry it. The crust is thin, properly blistered and has some fermentation character rather than being a neutral platform, and the sauce is more acidic than the New York default. Put burrata on a mediocre slice and you get a mediocre slice with expensive cheese on it. That is not what happens here.
Prices sit squarely in slice-shop territory, roughly $5 to $6 for a slice, which is the fact that surprises people who assume a reputation like this comes with a premium attached. It does not. This is still a counter where you order a slice and a can of something and stand up to eat it.
Three counters, three different problems
The Williamsburg original at 254 South 2nd Street is the one with the reputation and the one that expanded its own floor space in 2021 specifically because there was nowhere to stand. It still gets the longest and most committed queue, and it is the shop where the staff have been making this pizza the longest.
The West Village location opened in 2023 and absorbed an enormous amount of Manhattan demand that previously had to cross the river. It is busy, but it is busy in a neighbourhood full of alternatives, which means the line behaves differently — people leave it more readily, and it moves.
The Little Italy shop is the newest, opening in 2026, and it is currently the one with the shortest wait for the simple reason that fewer people know it exists. That will change. For now it is the correct choice if you want the pizza rather than the experience of queuing for the pizza.
How the line actually works
The queue is the single most discussed feature of this place and it is consistently overstated. This is a slice counter, not a restaurant — people order one or two slices, pay and leave. The line looks alarming and clears at a rate that a table-service wait never would.
The thing to watch is not the length of the line but what is on the counter. If the pies you want are already made and sitting, you are minutes away. If the burrata slices have just sold out and a new pie is going in, you are waiting on the oven regardless of how many people are ahead of you, and that is a real ten to fifteen minutes.
Off-peak is genuinely off-peak here. Mid-afternoon on a weekday at any of the three shops is a different experience from a Saturday at one o'clock, and it is the same pizza.
What else to order
Do not order only the burrata slice. The plain and the pepperoni are both excellent and cheaper, and the honest position is that the base pizza is the achievement and the burrata is a very good idea layered on top of it. A visit that includes one plain and one burrata tells you more than two burrata slices do.
The pistachio soft serve is the other thing people come back for and it is not an afterthought — it is genuinely good, properly nutty rather than sweet and green, and it is the correct end to a slice or two. In summer it is arguably as much of a draw as the pizza.
Whole pies are available and are worth it for three or more, but the shop is built around the slice and the counter, and there is not much room to sit and eat a pie at any of the three locations.
What expansion has and has not changed
Going from one counter to three is the moment a lot of well-loved shops become worse, and the specific failure mode is usually the dough — fermentation schedules that work in one kitchen do not automatically transfer, and a second location often produces a flatter, less interesting crust while the reputation coasts on the first.
That has not happened here in any obvious way, and the reason appears to be that the shops are small and the pizza is still made on site at each of them rather than trucked from a central kitchen. The pizza at the West Village counter is recognisably the same pizza, which is the whole test.
What has changed is the character of the queue. The Williamsburg line in 2019 was mostly people who had been told about it by someone who cared about pizza. The lines now are broader and include a lot of people who are there because the shop is famous, which is not a criticism of anybody but does mean the shop feels less like a neighbourhood discovery and more like a stop. The pizza does not know the difference.
Practical notes
Original at 254 South 2nd Street in Williamsburg, plus a West Village shop opened in 2023 and a Little Italy counter opened in 2026 — the newest has the shortest queue for now. Slices run roughly $5 to $6, which is ordinary slice-shop pricing. The burrata slice is the signature; order it alongside a plain rather than instead of one. Pistachio soft serve is worth staying for. Lines look worse than they are and clear quickly, but a sold-out tray means waiting on the oven. Mid-afternoon on a weekday is the easiest window at all three.
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Ask Karpo first
There are three of these counters now and the wait at each one is a different problem on any given afternoon. Ask Karpo which L'Industrie is nearest and moving fastest right now, whether the burrata tray has just come out or just sold out, and what else is worth a stop on that block while you wait.
