Levain Bakery

Last updated
Levain Bakery
Founded1995 in Manhattan, New York City
FoundersConstance McDonald and Pamela Weekes
OwnersConstance McDonald and Pamela Weekes

Levain Bakery is a retail bakery that opened in 1995 and is located at 167 West 74th Street, on the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. In June 2000 a second retail location was opened for seasonal business at 354 Montauk Highway, Wainscott, in the Hamptons area of eastern Long Island. A third store is located in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. In 2017, a fourth store was opened near the original location on the Upper West Side, and since then three more locations have opened on the Upper East Side and in NoHo and Williamsburg. [1] [2] In 2020, Levain opened their first store outside of New York, in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. [3] In 2023, Levain opened a location in the Larchmont area of Los Angeles. As of June 2024, there are seventeen locations: nine in the New York City area, two each in Chicago, Washington DC, and Boston, and one each in Los Angeles and Philadelphia. [4]

Contents

History

Front of Wainscott store Storefrontwainscott.jpg
Front of Wainscott store

Founded and co-owned by Constance McDonald and Pamela Weekes, the bakery initially opened to serve a variety of fresh-baked artisanal breads. [5] The bakery has since become notable for its 6-ounce chocolate chip walnut cookies. [6]

McDonald and Weekes developed the signature cookie recipe while training for an Ironman Triathlon. They discovered they needed a large number of calories to offset the rigors of training and decided on a traditional chocolate chip cookie, but much bigger. The 6-ounce chocolate chip walnut cookie served the purpose and ultimately became a signature item in their bakery. The cookie has spawned copycats. [7] [8] In 1998 Levain Bakery expanded its cookie business to include mail order.

Appearances in media

The Food Network has featured Levain Bakery in episodes of Throwdown with Bobby Flay, Roker on the Road, Unwrapped, Top 5, The Best Thing I Ever Ate, Sweet Dreams, and Worth It. In December 2007, Levain Bakery was featured on an episode of Fashionably Late with Stacy London. In June 2008, Budget Travel listed Levain Bakery #3 of “50 Reasons You Love New York City.” [9] They have been featured in the following books:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chocolate chip cookie</span> Drop cookie featuring chocolate chips

A chocolate chip cookie is a drop cookie that features chocolate chips or chocolate morsels as its distinguishing ingredient. Chocolate chip cookies are claimed to have originated in the United States in 1938, when Ruth Graves Wakefield chopped up a Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate bar and added the chopped chocolate to a cookie recipe; however, historical recipes for grated or chopped chocolate cookies exist prior to 1938 by various other authors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Girl Scout Cookies</span> Cookies sold by the Girl Scout Organization

Girl Scout Cookies are cookies sold by Girl Scouts in the United States to raise funds to support Girl Scout councils and individual troops. The cookies are widely popular and are commonly sold by going door-to-door, online, through school or town fundraisers, or at "cookie booths" set up at storefronts. The program is intended to both raise money and improve the financial literacy of girls. During an average selling season, more than one million girls sell over 200 million packages of cookies and raise over $800 million. The first known sale of cookies by Girl Scouts was in 1917. Cookie sales are organized by 112 regional Girl Scout councils who select one of two national bakeries to buy cookies from.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cuisine of New York City</span> Culinary traditions of New York, New York (USA)

The cuisine of New York City comprises many cuisines belonging to various ethnic groups that have entered the United States through the city. Almost all ethnic cuisines are well represented in New York, both within and outside the various ethnic neighborhoods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Graeter's</span> American regional ice cream chain

Graeter's is a regional ice cream chain based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1870 by Louis C. Graeter, the company has since expanded to 56 retail locations selling ice cream, candy and baked goods in the Midwestern United States. It further distributes its ice cream to 6,000 stores throughout the country. As of 2017, the company had 1,050 employees and $60 million in revenue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sunshine Biscuits</span> Defunct American snack company

Sunshine Biscuits, formerly known as The Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company, was an independent American baker of cookies, crackers, and cereals. The company, which became a brand on a few products such as Cheez-It, was purchased by Keebler Company in 1996, which was purchased by Kellogg Company in 2001. Around then, Sunshine Biscuits was headquartered in Elmhurst, Illinois, where Keebler was located until 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Entenmann's</span> American baked goods manufacturer

Entenmann's is an American company that manufactures baked goods and delivers them throughout the United States to supermarkets and other retailers for public sales. Often, they are known to have display cases at the end of store aisles. The company offers dessert, cup, loaf, and crumb cakes, and donuts, cookies, pies, cereal bars, muffins, Danish pastries, and among other baked goods, buns. In the past several years, they have added designer coffee flavors along with scented candles to their product line in an effort to broaden its appeal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">H&H Bagels</span> Bagel company in New York City

H&H Bagels is a bagel company in New York City that has been described as "classic," "famous," and "iconic." It operates five retail locations in New York City, with plans for 25 more stores across the United States. H&H Bagels also has nationwide shipping and global wholesale businesses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chelsea Market</span> Multi-use building in New York City

Chelsea Market is a food hall, shopping mall, office building and television production facility located in the Chelsea neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan, in New York City. The Chelsea Market complex occupies an entire city block with a connecting bridge over Tenth Avenue to the adjacent 85 Tenth Avenue building. The High Line passes through the 10th Avenue side of the building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mrs. Fields</span> American food company specializing in cookies

Mrs. Fields' Original Cookies Inc. is an American franchisor in the snack food industry, with Mrs. Fields and TCBY as its core brands. Through its franchisees' retail stores, it is one of the largest retailers of freshly-baked-on-premises specialty cookies and brownies in the United States and the largest retailer of soft-serve frozen yogurt in the country. In addition, it operates a gifts and branded retail business, entering into many licensing arrangements. Its franchise systems include over 300 franchised and licensed locations throughout the United States and in 22 other countries. It also offers retail grocery products and a gifting catalog under the name of Mrs. Fields Gifts. It is headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black and white cookie</span> Round cookie with chocolate and vanilla frosting

Black-and-white cookies, half-and-half cookies, and half-moon cookies are similar round cookies iced or frosted in two colors, with one half vanilla and the other chocolate. They are found in the Northeastern United States and Florida. Black-and-white cookies are flat, have fondant or sometimes royal icing on a dense cake base, and are common in the New York metropolitan area. Half-moon cookies are slightly dome-shaped (convex), have frosting on a fluffy angel cake base, and are common in Central New York and Boston, Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berger Cookies</span> German-American cookie

Berger Cookies are a handmade cookie made and marketed by DeBaufre Bakeries of Baltimore, Maryland. The cookies are widely known for their thick, chocolate frosting on an imperfectly shaped shortbread cookie. Not unlike a black and white cookie, the Berger Cookie is frosted on its flat bottom, giving the final cookie an overall rounded shape. Each weighs 1.25 ounces, with the cake-like under-cookie weighing a quarter of an ounce, and the chocolate/fudge frosting weighing an ounce. DeBaufre distributes packaged Berger Cookies via a delivery network around Baltimore and markets the cookies worldwide via internet sales.

François Payard is a former pastry chef at some of the world's finest restaurants, including Le Bernardin and Daniel in New York City. He was the owner of Payard Patisserie & Bistro, FP Patisserie, and FP bakery in New York City; he resigned as chief executive in 2016, and they closed after about a decade of existence in January 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Momofuku (restaurants)</span> Culinary brand

Momofuku is a culinary brand established by chef David Chang in 2004 with the opening of Momofuku Noodle Bar. It includes restaurants in New York City, Toronto (defunct), Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, a bakery established by pastry chef Christina Tosi, a bar (Nikai), and a quarterly magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dominique Ansel</span> French pastry chef

Dominique Ansel is a French pastry chef and owner of Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York City. He is best known for his invention of the Cronut, a croissant-donut hybrid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milk Bar (bakery)</span> Restaurant chain

Milk Bar is a chain of dessert and bakery restaurants in the United States, founded by chef Christina Tosi. As of 2023, the chain has branches in New York City; Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; Las Vegas; and Bellevue, Washington.

Joanne Chang is an American chef and restaurant owner. She is the owner of Flour Bakery in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts and James Beard Foundation Award winner for Outstanding Baker, 2016. In announcing the award, Devra First of the Boston Globe wrote that Chang was "on her way to becoming the Susan Lucci of the Beards." She is known for her sticky buns. In 2021, Chang appeared as a judge on Netflix's Baking Impossible.

<i>Bouchon Bakery</i> (cookbook)

Bouchon Bakery is a 2012 cookbook written by American chef Thomas Keller and Sebastien Rouxel. The cookbook's pastry recipes are based on those from Keller's restaurant Bouchon Bakery, where co-author Rouxel works as a pastry chef. Bouchon Bakery contains close to 150 recipes, as well as cooking tips and techniques. Keller tested many of the recipes with gluten-free flour. Bouchon Bakery emphasizes "clean cooking". Recipes contained in Bouchon Bakery include shortcrust pastry, laminated dough, croissants, choux pastry, brioche and levain bread, as well as a recipe for baked dog food.

The City Bakery was a bakery, cafe, chocolate shop, caterer and wholesaler. Its first location opened in Lower Manhattan of New York City in 1990. There were eight City Bakery locations in Japan: Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka. City Bakery Detroit was its last expansion. City Bakery also owned and operated six eco-minded bakeries called Birdbath Neighborhood Green Bakery in New York. The City Bakery closed on October 20, 2019 due to debt-related financial difficulties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hello Robin</span> Bakery in Seattle, Washington, U.S.

Hello Robin is a woman-owned bakery with two locations in Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington. The original bakery opened on Capitol Hill in 2013. A second location opened at University Village in 2020.

References

  1. "Levain Bakery's First Brooklyn Location To Open In Williamsburg In July". Greenpointers. June 22, 2020. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  2. Saltonshall, Gus (October 21, 2021). "Levain Bakery To Reopen Flagship Upper West Side Location". Upper West Side, NY Patch. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  3. Chapin, Adele (September 16, 2020). "Levain Bakery's Famously Extravagant Cookies Arrive in D.C." Eater DC.
  4. "Our Locations Levain Bakery". Our Locations Levain Bakery. June 21, 2024.
  5. "Wanna Cookie?". Art Culinaire. Fall 2005. Archived from the original on 2009-08-13.
  6. Hesser, Amanda (October 22, 1997). "Temptations; From a Small Bakery a Virtual Mountain of a Cookie". The New York Times.
  7. Parks, Stella (September 15, 2022). "Levain Bakery-Style Super-Thick Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe". Serious Eats.
  8. "Super Small Batch Levain Copy Cats". Cookie Madness. 6 May 2008.
  9. "50 Reasons You Love New York City". Budget Travel. Archived from the original on 2008-10-13.