NYC Cookie Master Levain Bakery is Set to Open Its First Brooklyn Location

Levain Bakery is set to open its first Brooklyn location next month

After months of speculation and many customer requests, iconic New York City cookie master Levain Bakery has announced that it’s finally headed to Brooklyn. The beloved uptown bakery says that its Brooklyn debut will take place on July 1, when it opens its doors to the public in Williamsburg at a new storefront at 164 N. Fourth Street, between Bedford and Driggs Avenues. The menu at the new bakery will be similar to its other locations, a spokesperson for the company says, and will include the bakery’s newest concoction, a gooey two-chip chocolate chip cookie.

Levain Bakery co-owners Pam Weekes and Connie McDonald have been serving their cult-favorite cookies on the Upper West Side and Harlem for more than 25 years now. In the last year, though, Weekes and McDonald have set their sights on a major expansion. Two new locations on the Upper East Side, and in Noho, respectively, opened within the last year, and the bakery has plans to go national with a location set to open either in Boston, Chicago, or Washington D.C. this year.

The new Levain in Williamsburg brings the bakery’s total number of New York locations to seven — two on the Upper West Side, one on the Upper East, one in Harlem, one in Noho, and one in the Hamptons — and marks its first expansion into Brooklyn.

In other news

— Williamsburg’s popular all-day cafe, Gertie will be a hosting a series of summertime events beginning this weekend. On Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., the team will be spinning vinyl records, while sections of Grand Street are closed off to traffic for eating and socially-distant street activities.

— Jason Hicks, the chef and owner of Upper East Side taproom Jones Wood Foundry, will be leading a virtual cooking class this Thursday devoted to making the iconic Scotch egg. The event, held in partnership with local non-profit St. George Society, is free to the public.

— Nathan’s Famous’ hot dog eating contest will return this year as an online-only, private event, a spokesperson for the company says. The annual Fourth of July festival will take place at a private location and include only five of its usual 15 contestants.

— An Astoria coffee shop found itself at the center of national attention earlier this week, after a diner deliberately coughed on another customer, all of which was captured on video. The owners of the coffee shop have since apologized for their response to the incident.

— Hudson Square American restaurant Houseman is back open for takeout and delivery, says owner Ned Baldwin. The well-liked neighborhood restaurant’s menu includes a burger, roast chicken, a few cocktails, and make-at-home meal kits.

— Bar Convent Brooklyn’s annual beverage industry trade show, originally scheduled for June, will now be held online in August, according to a spokesperson for the event.

— Already hurting from the novel coronavirus pandemic, the city’s LGBTQIA+ bars are reeling from the cancellation of this year’s Pride festival.

— We, too, have been bested by the Shack sauce: