New York City’s renowned Levain Bakery will soon debut its latest location and first in Brooklyn. Opening in the trendy Williamsburg neighborhood, the new store will feature the bakery’s famous six-ounce cookies, as well as breads, cakes and pastries.
The Brooklyn location has been in the works for over a year, and will make its debut offering pick-up only due to the coronavirus. Soon after, it will offer delivery through Caviar.
Excitement has been building for this new location, both from Brooklyn residents and Levain Bakery itself.
“We both love Brooklyn,” says co-founder Connie McDonald. “It’s such a great area. It reminds me of what New York was back in the ‘80s, all the artists and architecture. It just has such a great vibrant feeling, and it just seemed like a natural place for the bakery.”
On its opening day, Levain Bakery will donate all of the store’s profits to North Brooklyn Angels, a local nonprofit that fights hunger, poverty, homelessness and housing instability.
“We try to do things locally within the communities that we’re in,” says co-founder Pam Weekes. “Even 25 years ago when we first opened [our] 74th street [location], we always donated all of our leftover products at the day’s end. Although ideally, you don’t want to have a lot left over, you always do want to have enough to do that donation. We do that with all of our locations— work with local organizations and try to benefit the communities that we’re in.”
Levain Bakery has become a beloved “must-visit” New York institution, and its cookies are commonly cited as the best in New York. This will be the bakery’s first location outside of Manhattan, but not the last. Later this year, Levain Bakery plans to debut a location in Washington, D.C.