L'Industrie Pizzeria
Massimo Laveglia opened this Williamsburg counter in 2017 and gave the dough a long ferment. The crust is Roman-thin and the toppings come in from Italy. Minimal sauce and an accurate oven keep the mozzarella where it was laid.
Why go
The burrata is the slice that shows the technique. They spread it across a regular cheese slice and drizzle a fruity olive oil over it. You get a manageable mouthful of it. Albertine tells you to buy that one by the slice.
The pepperoni is flat discs and not cups. They come out porky and sweeter than they are salty. Albertine says they make the cups you grew up on taste artificial.
An Italian flag hangs off the tree outside, and there are a dozen bar stools indoors. A loudspeaker calls the numbers out to the sidewalk patio.
Two hundred and fifty square feet is what he started with in 2017, and he took the space next door in 2021 without changing what it is: no starters, no salads, no pasta, no eggplant parm.3 He is Tuscan-born, and the shop bills itself as the home of the burrata slice.67 His own line on it is We're not a restaurant ... we're a slice spot.
3 The toppings go onto a plain slice when you order it, which is why the burrata arrives cool against warm sauce rather than baked into the pie.45
Order this / avoid
- Order: the margherita, which is where the dough shows.
- Order: a burrata slice, singular.
- Order: the pepperoni if you are having a third.
- Avoid: a whole pie of the burrata.
What locals & experts say
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Hannah Albertine, The Infatuation, 30 January 2024, at 9.0:
Each bite of blistered crust puffs, then crunches, tasting more like bread from a bakery than a happy dough triangle from a pizzeria.
1 -
Bryan Kim, in the same publication's city pizza guide: he calls this the city's most consistent single slice and files the Williamsburg shop as the original of three.2
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Ryan Sutton, then Eater NY's chief critic, on what the shop refuses to be (24 June 2021):
there are no appetizers, crisp salads, fancy mains, al dente pastas, or eggplant Parms.
3 -
Eater's slice-shop map, on why the burrata one works: it
shows off a lovely contrast between cool, milky dairy and the warm tomato sauce.
5
Good to know
- Getting in: a counter, no bookings, and the line moves.
- Doors: three L'industrie shops. This page is 254 South 2nd Street in Williamsburg.
- The Manhattan one: he opened it on Christopher Street in 2024, a block from Mama's Too, and neither shop knew the other had signed a lease.8
- Sandwiches: Wednesdays only, one variety, and they announce it on Instagram that morning.3
- Dessert: soft serve, and that is the whole list.3
Verdict
must-visit — Three slices between two people is the right size of visit, and the toppings are where the money goes. Come at an odd hour and take the food outside. Skip it if you want a table and somebody to bring things to it.