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

Pam Weekes and Connie McDonald were friends and bread bakers for New York City restaurants before becoming the founders of a small West 74th Street shop. In 1995, they opened Levain Bakery, taking Levain from the French word for leavened bread.

Handwork defined the early routine: a small team produced baguettes, loaves, and rolls every day. A triathlon-training idea led Pam Weekes and Connie McDonald to a big chocolate chip walnut cookie, and brisk sales of the sample batch established a lasting bakery favorite.

The Levain Way links that workshop spirit to quality, craft, time, care, comfort, celebration, expressive texture, and the pleasure of sharing baked goods.

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.