About Us
"Dreaming of delicious things"
Connie McDonald and Pam
Weekes, co-founders of Manhattan’s Levain Bakery, met in 1986 at a swimming
pool on the east side of Manhattan. At the time Connie worked in banking and Pam
in fashion, and they shared a passion for swimming and triathlons. Out of this passion
emerged the unlikely inspiration for Levain Bakery.
In 1994 as these two were training for an Ironman—starved for calories and dreaming
of delicious things—they discovered they not only shared a love of serious competition,
but they also shared a love for food. With an unabating appetite, the twosome talked
incessantly about the perfect chocolate chip cookie. From those brainstorming sessions,
they created what would become their signature item: a six-ounce chocolate chip
walnut cookie made from the freshest ingredients. So in 1995 Connie and Pam left
their jobs and launched Levain Bakery.
From the beginning Levain Bakery has been a comfortable and inviting presence in
its Upper West Side neighborhood where it boasts a steady stream of community regulars
and tourists loyal to its diverse assortment of freshly baked products. The menu
includes an inventive array of rustic breads and other equally creative takes on
traditional baked goods, and of course the well-loved cookies. Their business mission
from the start was to bake everything fresh and on site each day and to donate the
day’s leftovers to charity each night, a mission that remains solidly in place.
In 2000, in response to local demand, the two opened a second bakery on the East
End of Long Island in the laid-back East Hampton village of Wainscott.
Levain Bakery has appeared on multiple Food Network segments including Roker on
the Road, Sweet Dreams, Unwrapped, Top Five, and Barefoot Contessa. Most recently,
Connie and Pam won a chocolate chip cookie Throwdown with Bobby Flay.