Ceres
Ceres opened in early 2025 selling $6 cheese slices, and it got so busy the slices stopped. The oven fits six pizzas at a time, so it makes around 165 whole pies a day.1
Why go
Kim describes a crust that is cracker-crisp and inconceivably thin, drizzled with Tuscan olive oil and finished with Parmigiano Reggiano made from the milk of the reggiana red cow.1 The cheese pie carries two kinds of San Marzano tomato, shredded mozzarella and a few cubes of scamorza, and nothing else.1 Dominique Roy picks it as his second favorite pizza in New York, and in the same breath he says the owners used to work with him at Eleven Madison Park.3 Getting one is the hassle. Kim signed up on a Wednesday afternoon for an evening slot. The shop had sold out before that evening was over.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the 'nduja pie with burrata. It ran $63 in May 2025, and Kim reckons at least $7 of that is the nine-year-aged balsamic on top.1
- Order: the mushroom pie, which is Roy's.3
- Order: the tomato pizza. Kim says the sauce is
tart as granny smith apple
.1 - Avoid: waiting on a pepperoni pie or a slice. They sell neither, and Kim wanted both.1
What locals & experts say
- Bryan Kim, The Infatuation (22 May 2025), rating it 8.3:
Ceres was necessary eating for anyone who values innovation in the field of pizza science.
He also names the flaw:the puffy sourdough crust could use some more flavor.
1 - Daniel Humm, of Eleven Madison Park, in his Grub Street Diet on 9 January 2026, taking two whole pies home and naming Julian Geldmacher and Jake Serebnick as the owners:
for me it truly is one of the greatest slices in the world.
2 - Dominique Roy, Eleven Madison Park, in The Relisher (4 August 2026), naming his former colleagues:
The owners, who used to work with me at Eleven Madison Park, opened it a little over a year ago, and it's been going crazy ever since because the pizza is incredible. This is the best New York slice-style pie.
3
Good to know
- Booking: none. You order in person and choose a pickup time.1
- Timing: it works for lunch or dinner, and Roy says walk-ins are the only way in.3
Verdict
should-visit — One pie is a lot of pizza for one person, so bring somebody. If you only do this once, spend the money on the 'nduja.