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Private company

Levain Bakery

Bakeries of the United States

Levain Bakery, pronounced as (luh-ven), 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.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1995Founded1
  • Industryretail1

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Storefrontny
Photo: Julie Skarratt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

Levain Bakery, pronounced as (luh-ven), 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. In 2020, Levain opened their first store outside of New York, in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. 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 D.C., and Boston, and one each in Los Angeles and Philadelphia.2

How it started

History

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

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. In 1998 Levain Bakery expanded its cookie business to include mail order and in 2022 expanded their services to offer catering as well as nationwide shipping through Doordash.

From Wikipedia’s article on Levain Bakery, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Timeline

  1. 1995Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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