The story behind the bakery that became a New York institution.

Two friends turned bread work into a storefront when Pam Weekes and Connie McDonald moved from baking for New York City restaurants to a small shop on West 74th Street. Levain Bakery opened in 1995, with a name borrowed from the French word for leavened bread.

The early team made loaves, baguettes, and rolls by hand every day. Training for triathlons led Pam Weekes and Connie McDonald to create a weighty chocolate chip walnut cookie, and the quick response to a sample batch made it a signature.

The Levain Way preserves the values beneath those steps: time, care, quality, craft, comfort, celebration, memorable texture, and baking that creates joy.

Press reviews

“Among local cookie mavens, they’re considered as much a New York culinary icon as a Katz’s hot dog or a Di Fara slice. Tourists bucket-list them. New Yorkers line up for them.”
"Levain Bakery's cookies are the stuff of legend."
“There’s a reason we’ve called its chocolate chip-walnut cookie one of the best chocolate chip cookies in America.”
"Weighing in at slightly less than half a pound, Levain's could-be-meals cookies are big, but you'll still wish you had just one more bite after you've finished."

The Levain Way

Levain is the cookie to celebrate, to commemorate, to comfort, to console. Decadently crispy on the outside and gooey in the middle, its gooeyness cuts right to a cookie lover’s core. Flaky, moist and savory, it rises to the occasion. The smell. The smile. The sweetness. The OMG moment of biting into a Levain cookie. You never forget your first — and you’ll always want another.

Levain is love. It’s quality. It’s craft.

Every cookie, loaf, scone and muffin is made by loving hands, with the best ingredients, and a lot of heart. Given time to chill, to rise, to proof, to set, every Levain pastry is a magical amalgam of flavors and textures to light up your senses and bring you joy.

Keen On Community

We’ve always been incredibly grateful for the support of the communities we’re a part of, and we strive to reciprocate that support in ways big and small. On opening day, our new bakeries donate all proceeds to a local charity organization, and at the end of every day thereafter, we donate all unsold baked goods. It brings us great pride to think of all the people who’ve been treated to a fresh cookie, a delicious bread roll, or a flavorful muffin in the midst of a challenging day.

Years in the Baking

From a small bread shop on West 74th Street to a cookie known around the world, Levain has kept baking with the same generous spirit since 1995.