Levain Bakery

Levain Bakery in the Upper West Side is a little farther than I would normally trek when I'm in NY, but I had a little time to kill while waiting for the Guggenheim to open.  Not surprisingly, this popular bakery had a small line of people waiting for them to open.

This place is so tiny that it can probably allow maybe 3-4 people inside at most while everyone else waits outside for their turn.  Once inside there is a small counter displayed with breads, cookies, and pastries for you to choose from.  

While it seems like everyone choose a little bit of everything, the thing Levain Bakery is known for is their cookies.  They are giant!  At almost 1,000 calories, I'm sort of glad I didn't know the calorie count until after I devoured them. 
Their cookies resemble a drop style cookie similar to Specialty's back home (see post HERE).  Its the perfect combination of crispy outside with a very soft and gooey center.  I was a little surprised they didn't have a plain chocolate chip cookie.  The closest was the walnut chocolate chip.  Although, I'm really not into nuts in my cookies, this one only had a small amount of walnuts and gave a nice crunch to the chewy cookie. 

The insides of these cookies are soft and full of chocolate chips.  Even hours after these chocolate chips on these cookies stay gooey.

The double chocolate chip is literally a chocoholic's dream cookie.  Chocolate on even more chocolate.  These cookies are rich and full of sweet goodness.  The only thing that could make these cookies even more perfect is milk, which oddly Levain Bakery does not sell. 

       

Address:                  Levain Bakery
                                 167 W. 74th St
                                 New York NY

Type:                        bakery

Popular chomps:      chocolate chip walnut cookie

                                  dark chocolate peanut butter

Chomp worthy:         chocolate chip walnut cookie
                                   dark chocolate chip