OPEN FOR BUSINESS
BY ROSE ADAMS
Manhattan’s acclaimed
Levain Bakery will open a location
in Williamsburg on
Wednesday, bringing its legendary
cookies to Brooklyn
for the fi rst time.
The bakery’s owners chose
the new outpost — located at
164 N. Fourth Street between
Bedford and Driggs avenues
— because of Williamsburg’s
residential feel and many
restaurants, said a bakery
spokeswoman.
“We always look for places
where there’s a neighborhood
community, and a place that
has a taste for great food and
great people,” said Rachel
Porges. “Williamsburg has
a great neighborhood feel, lots
of people wandering around
on any given day.”
The North Brooklyn eatery
will serve fresh breads and
Levain’s famous cookies that
have earned the business its
cult following. Customers can
pick up the gooey cookies in
their chocolate chip walnut,
dark chocolate peanut butter,
and oatmeal raisin varieties
— in addition to a new cookie
called “two chip chocolate
chip cookie,” which Levain recently
COURIER L 22 IFE, JULY 10-16, 2020
introduced.
“We launched the new
cookie in February, our very
fi rst chocolate chip cookie
with no nuts,” Porges said.
The store will have an
airy, modern feel and an open
kitchen that will allow customers
to see bakers making
the breads and cookies, like
Levain’s other shops, Porges
said.
“We’ve always said we’re
an open bakery, we’re not just
a retail shop,” she said. “You
can see bakers making the
bread that day, making the
brioche.”
The outpost will also
have Brooklyn-specifi c
touches, such as mural vignettes
painted by artist
Libby VanderPloeg that depict
scenes throughout Williamsburg,
such McCarren Park,
East River Park, and Smorgasburg.
However, customers won’t
be able to linger in the bakery
for the duration of the coronavirus
related closures, as the
store will only offer online ordering
and take-out to start.
Levain’s Williamsburg
opening comes 25 years after
co-founders Pam Weekes
and Connie McDonald opened
the bakery on the Upper West
Side. Levain was originally a
bread shop, but the owners began
making the famous cookies
to energize them while
Levain Bakery will bring its famous cookies to Brooklyn for the fi rst time
at its Williamsburg shop opening July 1. Melissa Kirschenheiter
they were training for triathlons,
Porges said.
“They were training for
triathlons on the side and they
needed a snack,” she said.
“They fl ew off the shelves.”
Since the bakery’s founding,
Weekes and McDonald
have opened six locations —
fi ve in Manhattan, and one
in Suffolk County. And in the
fall, the owners hopes to roll
out a fi fth location in Washington,
DC.
The bakery’s owners work
to choose each new location
with care and connect with
the communities they serve,
Porges said.
“We don’t ever go into a
market and just plop ourselves
down,” she said. “We’re
engaging within our communities.”
Levain Bakery to
open in W’burg
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