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Here are a few tidbits from our fans in the press. [Click on the publication headers to see the entire article when available.]
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Weekend in New York | Sating a Sweet Tooth | It Can Be the Big Candy Apple
Little Levain Bakery sells really big chocolate chip cookies... The Levain Bakery, easy walking distance from the American Museum of Natural History, is a worthy stop, especially considering its utter lack of cupcakes. Almost 10 years ago, Amanda Hesser, writing in The New York Times, said their blocky, chunky, fudgy creations "may possibly be the largest, most divine chocolate chip cookies in Manhattan" -- and it's still true. There are also chocolate-chocolate chip, chocolate peanut butter chip and oatmeal raisin, for $3.50 each...
He also liked the "gargantuan version of a Nutter Butter cookie" ($2.95 to go) at Bouchon Bakery... which apparently works quite well after the $13.25 tuna sandwich. But save that for your next weekend in town. Those with their priorities straight will instantly realize that $13.25 is only 75 cents short of what you would need to buy one of each flavor of the huge, gooey cookies at Levain, a mere 10-minute, calorie-burning walk north.
-- from the New York Times, February 11, 2007
Temptations: From a Small Bakery, a Virtual Mountain of a Cookie
From this brownstone on West 74th Street, Connie McDonald and Pamela Weekes produce what may possibly be the largest, most divine chocolate chip cookies in Manhattan. The fat round cookies, about an inch high and three inches in diameter, are packed with walnut halves and chunks of chocolate and weigh almost as much as a grapefruit.
How do the bakers keep the cookies from spreading out flat in the oven? Guesses are welcome, but they refuse to divulge their secret.
-- from the New York Times, October 22, 1997
Zagat Survey 2003 New York City Marketplace - Top Cookies
27 quality | 19 variety | 25 service | Expensive
Surveyors say this "tiny" downstairs bakery on the Upper West Side offers some of "the best cookies in NYC" - and some of the "hugest" - especially the "incredible chocolate chip" that's a "little mountain of delight"; the "limited" selection includes "wonderful bread" ("try the raisin"), "superb scones" and "excellent sandwiches."
Zagat Survey 1999/2000 New York City Marketplace
27 quality | 19 variety | 25 service | Moderately Priced
"If you can find" this Upper West Side bakery tucked into a basement, you'll discover the "biggest, chewiest" and possibly "best chocolate chip cookie in NYC" as well as "addictive" sourdough rolls filled with Valrhona chocolate; the "small but inventive" selection also includes a "sinful" drop cookie, short for "drop everything" to try it."
The List: What's new, what's hot, what's cool
The Cookies
You never thought you'd see a cookie in the pages of MEN'S JOURNAL - but these are no ordinary cookies. Weighing in at almost half a pound each,
Levain Bakery's softball-sized confections - which the New York Times called "possibly the largest, most divine" cookies in Manhattan - are now
being shipped nationwide. In addition to chocolate-chip-walnut, which are packed with chocolate chunks and walnut halves, the bakery offers
chocolate-chocolate-chip, chocolate-peanut-butter-chip, and oatmeal-raisin. The cookies can be ordered by phone (877-453-8246) or from www.levainbakery.com. (Dec '98/Jan '99)
Essential New York: Eight To-Die-For Chocolate Chip Cookies
Levain's scone-style mound is just this side of batter, with a perfect runny-chocolate-to-crunchy-walnut ratio. (November 7, 2002)
Time Out New York Annual Guide Eating & Drinking 2003
Levain may mean "leaven" in French, but this bakery, in the basement of an Upper West Side brownstone, is decidedly down-to-earth. With a warm atmosphere full of yeasty aromas, Levain doesn't try to be all sweets to all people; it limits itself to a small, expertly made assortment. The bakers understand that there's more to pastry than sweetness and allow other flavors to share center stage, most notably butter, cinnamon, fabulous raspberry jam and deep dark chocolate. If you order a cookie (one with peanut butter and chocolate chips, perhaps), you won't have room for anything else - the dense, moist mounds weigh a hefty six ounces apiece. Pace yourself by starting with a crisp, single-serving sourdough pizza (such as artichoke-Gruyere or kalamata olive and goat cheese), and be sure to take home a loaf of superb bread. If you must choose only one item, it should be Levain's version of pain au chocolat, a sturdy, chewy roll filled with a generous chunk of bitter Valrhona chocolate. Cookies are available by mail order, and Hamptonites will be happy to know that Levain has a second location in Wainscott.
Time Out New York Annual Guide Eating & Drinking 2000
Since 1995, Levain Bakery has been attracting the cookie cognescenti with what some say is the best chocolate chip cookie in the city. Customers hang out to chat with the staff or sit outside on a bench while devouring a dark-chocolate-chocolate-chip, dark-chocolate-peanut-butter chip or oatmeal-raisin-cookie. Now that word is out, Levain ships gift packages all over the country. As good as the desserts are, don't overlook the sourdough, light semolina and whole-wheat loaves, focaccia or baguettes. Once you've been to Levain, you'll wish there were one in your neighborhood too.
Top Five - Chocolate-Chip Cookies
With all due respect to Famous Amos, Mrs. Fields, and Mom, the House of Toll has gone way upscale. So who's complaining? 1. Levain Bakery - In a WWF-like league of their own, these Hulk Hogans of the cookie world weigh in at six ounces. But their mutant size doesn't detract from flavor. Dough junkies take note: They're a little underdone in their capacious middles. (May 6, 2002)
To the Manor Borne
The best way to get yourself invited back? Don't show up empty-handed. New York's savviest hosts share their secrets to good giving - and getting. Samantha Boardman, socialite: "I bring Levain cookies - they're unbelievable, and people get hooked. They come hot." (June 24, 2002)
Money Magazine
Gifts online - Every bakery claims to have perfected one classic dessert item or another, but we think the following create truly distinctive sweets. Levain Bakery (www.levainbakery.com) makes huge, half-pound chocolate-chip cookies that are wonderfully chewy and not too sweet. (December 2000)
Town & Country Magazine
EAT AND BE MERRY - Here's a selection of sweet and savory delicacies that are good enough to give......SWEET DREAMS Levain Bakery, with outposts of Manhattan's Upper West Side and in Wainscott on Long Island, can please sweet tooths the world over with any combination of its Chocolate Chip Walnut, Oatmeal Raisin, Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip and Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies... (December 2000)
In Style Entertaining Magazine
Levain Bakery Chocolate-Chip Cookies....Why they're good: At 6 oz. each, these cookies are so dense that just one is a dessert in itself. "It's a very good, chewy cookie," said [Francois] Payard. Added [Claudia] Flemming, "It has a good flavor." (Holiday 2000)
Lucky Magazine
Dessertcart: We love the 21st century! Each one of these fabulous treats can be ordered from a Web site or catalog and delivered to you in no time at all. (Spring/Summer 2000)
Jodi's Shortcuts 2000, 2002
Included in Top 10 Specialty Stores - Levain Bakery Wainscott
Included in Top 10 Goodies - Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies
Town & Country special issue: New York at Christmas
Once you've shopped at Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman and Bloomingdale's and have taken in the blue-chip wonders of Cartier, Tiffany and all the other purveyors of world-class treasures, explore the lesser-known stores dotting the cityscape. Located almost exclusively in New York, these smart shops brim with the promise of the season. Levain Bakery: Enjoy its outsize cookies - available in peanut butter, oatmeal raisin and two variations of chocolate chip - or try its toothsomer, citrus-scented sweet Italian bread... (December '99)
The Best of New York presented to Levain Bakery's "Chunky Chocolate-Chip Cookie..." for Editor's Choice: Sugar Shock (April 24, '00)
....Stateside, cookie mavens are raving about Levain, an Upper (West) Side Manhattan bakery. Its chocolate-chip creations weigh in at nearly a half-pound apiece...... (April '99)
...Connie McDonald e Pam Weekes cucinano di continuo squisiti biscotti al cioccolato, con noci, uvetta, avena, che spediscono ovunque... (16 Gennaio '99)
Shopping, Monster Cookies
Ever since local Southampton hero Kathleen was ousted from Kathleen's Bake Shop, the East End has been in a sorry state of chocolate-chip-cookie flux. Until now. The owners of the Upper West Side's petite Levain Bakery have opened a branch in Wainscott, where their dense, oversize cookies may very well sabotage a summer diet regime or two. Those choosing to abstain - for whatever insane reason - might opt instead for wonderful semolina and sourdough loaves, banana bread, cinnamon-buttered brioche, individual artichoke-and Gruyere pizzas, or a sandwich of the day, like prosciutto di Parma with Parmesan on a baguette. And weekends only, the Long Island Levain introduces a new line of seasonal deep-dish pies incorporating locally grown fruit, strawberry first. (July 10, '00)
Picks of the week - Get Baked
Sweets-minded Upper West Siders have long been privy to Levain Bakery on 74th Street. Times have changed: Forget stocking up before heading to the beach - the bakery's owners, Pam Weekes and Connie McDonald, have opened a spacious outpost in Wainscott. Levain serves up the most delectable of desserts from those famous cookies (we love the chocolate chip and walnut) to pies, breads and focaccia at their new store on Montauk Highway. Now that's sweets for the sweet!... (July 28 - August 3, '00)
Cookies - These are the gooiest, richest cookies you'll ever taste, and we here at Hamptons eat them by the dozen, to the downfall of our waistline. At nearly half a pound and an inch-and-a-half in height, these just might be worth breaking the diet.
Jim Brodsky, President, Sharp Communications - The Best of the Hamptons:
"1. Chocolate cookies from Levain Bakery"
Carol Goll, Regional Communications Manager, Mercedes-Benz USA:
"Best Cookies: Chocolate chip walnut and oatmeal raisin at Levain Bakery"
MONSTER COOKIES Cookies almost as big as muffins, but much more sinful and rich, are the allure at Levain Bakery. (May 98)
Everything in the place is bread-based except for the big, lumpy cookies,
which weigh one-third of a pound apiece. Chocolate-chip-walnut, chocolate
chocolate-chip walnut, chocolate peanut-butter-chip and oatmeal raisin... they go as fast as they are baked. (July 25, '98)
One Fifth Avenue has reopened.... The most remarkable resource is its
baking - executed by Connie McDonald. Her breads are phenomenal, and heavy
demand has spurred a retail cottage industry. Patrons now buy breads for
home consumption as well. ...nobody fashions a more delicious, richer,
chunkier, monster chocolate chip cookie than the one dished out here.... (Aug. 4, '96)
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