The line at Levain.
The lines at the original Levain store on West 74th Street have often stretched down the block. But people won’t have to wait on line much longer to taste the famous cookies.
The company is going national, and will be in supermarkets starting this fall. It will be selling pre-baked versions in the frozen food section, Bloomberg reports. They’ll initially be distributed at a Texas-based supermarket chain called Central Market. And the bakery will be expanding to other cities, beyond its 7 New York stores. The first one outside the city will be in Washington, D.C., and is set to open in September.
Levain was started in 1995 by Connie McDonald and Pam Weekes, both of whom were triathletes. Their palm-size ingredient-packed cookies initially were meant to give them lots of energy for their long bike rides and other athletic feats. But they realized people also liked to eat them while sitting on their couch watching reruns of The Office (or is that just us?).
The founders sold a majority stake to growth equity group Stripes in 2018.
The frozen supermarket-sold cookies will be smaller than the ones in the store, Bloomberg reports.
One concession Levain has made for its packaged product, though, is size. Notwithstanding renown for decadent cookies that contain six ounces of batter, its packaged ones are only one-third as big. This is a more reasonable product that still clocks in at around 260 calories, but it’s one that takes away from the extravagance of the original.
“The cookies at the bakery are designed for sharing. These are meant for one person,” says Porges. “We didn’t see that people needed a six-ounce cookie at home.”
Wait, we were supposed to be sharing our Levain cookies?
Full-grown adults waiting in line for a cookie.
I worked at that Levain pre-pandemic. It was a great job. It was fun serving people from around the world cookies and seeing the universal joy on their faces no matter where they were from. Those cookies are worth the wait. ❤️🍪❤️
even more insanely delicious if you microwave one for a few seconds and add some vanilla ice cream on top !!! a divine treat….
Sounds like a great job.
Full-grown adult with nothing better to do than complain about people enjoying things.
Can we assume that was a stock photo of people not wearing masks?
Suggest you look at the photo again (closer to the screen this time!) and think about *when* this photo was taken.
Let’s all please stop with the mask hysteria.
SPEAK !!!!
Ha ha! You’re so right.
Wouldn’t it be great if we had access to a long, detailed report about everything Mark Moore eats and drinks, watches on television, looks at on his phone or over the computer, thinks about every political issue, etc. etc., so we could all comment on HIS behavior? I plead guilty: at times I’ve stood on line for a wonderful Levain chocolate chip cookie. And I further plead guilty: this is not the worst thing I’ve done in my life. 🙂
Do we know that Mark is a full-grown adult? Comment says otherwise..
Good timing on the sale to PE Firm. The cookies are good but certainly not healthy for triathletes
Who knew you were suppose to share the cookie?????? Need an outlet in New Orleans!!
Noooo…it will become another Crumbs Bake Shop story!
Are they kosher?
Another local success story sells out to a private equity group. That always works out well, doesn’t it?
Wonder whether they’ll sell the cookies at Fairway?
Oh, yeah, wait…..
Great for Levain! Having lived in Texas for 17 years, Central Market (owned by HEB) is a more upscale grocery chain that rivals Whole Foods in all the right ways. Texans will love Levain’s cookies, even if smaller than those we can enjoy here. 😌
There’s a long line of great regional baked goods who flamed out after accepting venture money and “going national” : Mrs. Fields, David’s Cookies, Famous Amos (a shadow of their former selves) Entenmann’s. There’s something special about a regional brand that isn’t everywhere. Too bad. Levain was a busy that made the west side special.
I’ve eaten a lot of cookies in my life and Levian’s are the only ones I would call “disgusting.” They barely cook them and the raw dough is FOUL!
Glad they’re going national, though. Maybe it’s cut down the number of people clogging the sidewalk. finally.
I wish them all the best. After all these years Im still amazed at the lines at the old store and the crowds in the one on Amsterdam. My wife and I really dislike the cookies and have never understood their success. However, I do wish them success with their national marketing.
Best eat there ain’t a cookie.
It’s the baguette with butter & jam
Delicious.
Happy for them, but these gems are meant to be eaten straight away from the oven!
Can’t blame them for cashing in. But a shelf stable small cookie is pretty much the opposite of the product people stand in line for.
was Crumbs ever good?
Crumbs was great when it was a single location on Amsterdam around 75th. You coud get coffee or tea served in a china cup or mug, and share a huge cupcake or slice of cake that actually tasted like cake not just sugar.
As soon as they expanded to a much larger location across the street, and then branched out, the cakes were awful.
Will they be coming to Denver?
Hot tip-These days there is no line at Levain on Amsterdam & 77th. And they are meticulous about everything. By the way, I love the last sentence in this article.
gena
“It will be selling pre-baked versions in the frozen food section.”
Ouch.
“The founders sold a majority stake to growth equity group Stripes in 2018.”
Ouch.
Congrats to the owners on a successful business venture, but cookie-wise things ain’t gonna be what they useta be.
And P.S., nobody shares those cookies. Ever.
WSR: why did u disable comments on the 72nd St subway stabbing? Afraid of the inevitable onslaught of comments about the disgusting state of affairs in our beleaguered neighborhood?
No need, they would just be duplicative of the comments regarding the crime at Pappardella.
No, I think they were just trying to limit the number of comments from people who can’t spell out “you”.
surprised they went with the supermarket cookie.
congrats to them. hope they don’t go the way of Krispy Kreme where it became so easy to find and the quality of gas station doughnuts were so bad and everything so accessible the donut lost its allure.
The brokers that hang out in front of the Brusco management office next door to Levain on 74th Street will miss checking out the cute ladies who waited on the long lines to spend $5 on one cookie!
it’s $4 a cookie, n00b
americans are fat, stop eating cookies
I always request the Levain baker to let the cookies finish baking because the underbaked dough isn’t for me. I wish them luck!
I have known Connie and Pam for 20 years. Every year I have asked for a donation for the Walkathons I The Real Beacon Paint sponsored, they gave us 100 cookies.That was EVERY YEAR,and We did 20 walkathons. When I would go to the store to thank them, they said the same thing every year” Sign us up for next year”.Their stores are always clean inside and outside. They are certainly good neighbors and a community treasure. Also, they both live on the Upper West Side.
Ahhh… I thought you were reporting on them closing the 74th st location. Theres lawyers papers on it with $50k due or they need to vacate the premise.
Which markets will be selling the cookies?