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It’s always the summer of the slice here in New York City, but in the West Village, it’s looking especially so.
Mama’s Too and L’Industrie, two of the biggest names in NYC slice shops, are heading for the West Village this year. Mama’s Too owner Frank Tuttolomondo says his pizzeria will launch at 323-325 Bleecker, near Christopher Street, while L’Industrie’s Massimo Laveglia says he’d prefer to remain tight-lipped about his address, but that its “very, very close” to Mama’s Too West Village. Both are targeting a summer 2023 launch.
The two are friends and both say their respective West Village expansions are a complete coincidence.
Tuttolomondo opened Mama’s Too on the Upper West Side in 2017, located near his parents’ spot, Mama’s Pizza, continuing their uptown legacy. “Some pizzerias try to make a better slice. Very few try to make a different slice. Mama’s Too makes a different slice,” New York Times critic Pete Wells wrote in his starred review, heralding it as a slice spot that could go toe-to-toe with any of the new-wave Brooklyn establishments.
Mama’s Too will serve alcohol and Tuttolomondo says he’s experimenting with operating as both full and counter-service in his approximately 3,000-square-foot West Village establishment, nearly seven times as big as on the Upper West Side. Tuttolomondo says Upper West Side remains open, but that he may explore expanding there, too.
L’Industrie opened in Williamsburg on South Second Street, also in 2017 by Laveglia and Nick Baglivo, drawing lines for its slices, but its burrata in particular, which the New York Times named one of the city’s most essential dishes. The slice shop was so popular it needed to stretch with a next-door expansion, that debuted in April 2021 — which, then-Eater-critic Ryan Sutton called even better in its new iteration, with its “ultra-thin crust.”
Laveglia, a native of Pistoia, Italy, tells Eater that L’industrie in the West Village will bring in two new co-owners, Alex and Adam Saper, who are partners in Eataly. When the West Village establishment debuts, he says he looks forward to serving wine by the glass for the first time (they’re by the bottle in Brooklyn), and expanding pastries out of the more than 1,000-square-foot space, which will remain a counter-service operation.
