Levain Bakery Celebrates Its 30th Anniversary With Ice Cream Scoops All Summer Long

Forbes

20-05-2025

Levain à la Mode
Mark Weinberg
Referring to a cookie from Levain simply as a 'cookie,' just doesn't sit right. It's so much more than that.
A cookie from the New York City institution is a token of love. You don't forget where you were, or who you were with, the first time you tried one.
Now Levain is offering the option to elevate that experience. This summer, you'll be able to add a cold scoop of cold vanilla ice cream alongside the warm, gooey, slightly-caramelized six-ounce cookie hunks for a program it's calling Levain à la Mode.
It's part of an overall celebration of Levain's 30 year anniversary, honoring the shop's legacy as a beloved neighborhood bakery that has kept true to its roots, partnering with local ice cream shops for the seasonal program. '[Each partner]
Levain à la Mode
Mark Weinberg
Summertime Nostalgia
Depending on the city you're in, each Levain à la Mode experience will taste slightly different. Levain chose its local partners with careful intention; they would have to live up to the high expectations people expect from Levain.
Bakeries across its flagship city of New York will feature ice cream from Caffè Panna. With locations in Gramercy and Greenpoint, Caffè Panna has had a partnership with Levain for a few years now, creating ice cream flavors infused with Levain cookies along with mixing the cookies into a variety of flavors, hence, the proof of concept that the marriage of these particular cookies and ice cream was already there.
'They do something better than we can ever do, which is cookies, and combining the two things we both do really great makes a pretty phenomenal dessert,' says Hallie Meyer, founder of Caffè Panna.
Levain à la Mode will offer vanilla ice cream with a selection of any cookie, including the Rocky Road cookie which is coming back to the menu. 'When you're working with a flavor as simple as vanilla, making sure that each of the components is really, really quality actually matters,' Meyer says. 'Since it's coming straight from the bakery, you know it's going to be a little bit warm and the ice cream is going to melt and it's just going to be a perfect symphony of contrasts.'
Affogatos are also on the Levain menu this summer. 'You have the hot, hot bitter espresso shot on the cold, fatty creamy ice cream,' says Meyer.
Levain à la Mode
Mark Weinberg
The cookies paired with Dolcezza's gelato at its Washington, DC locations is a partnership as good as a warm Levain cookie with vanilla ice cream. As I interviewed Dolcezza cofounder Robb Duncan, he was receiving a delivery of fresh tarragon–for his seasonal Strawberry Tarragon sorbet–from a local farm nearby in Virginia–a scene more out of a fine restaurant than an ice cream shop. 'It just makes sense to reach out and tap into that local ecosystem of makers, of creatives, chefs, farmers,' Duncan says.
Inspired by Argentinian gastronomy, Dolcezza, which began more than 20 years ago at local farmers markets, goes the extra mile to make one-of-a-kind gelato. Its grass-fed, low-heat pasteurization dairy to make its gelato is sourced from Amish farmers who produce the milk for Dolcezza. Levain cofounders Pam Weekes and Connie McDonald connected with Duncan before opening their first DC location. 'They move to the same beat of the drum as we do as far as quality,' he says. 'It's really that old school way of doing things…for the community, the baker, the bakery.'
Dolcezza's vanilla gelato is the vanilla extract from Singing Dog Vanilla. The vanilla beans used to make this extract are Fair Trade vanilla beans from family farms throughout Indonesia, Uganda and Papua New Guinea. And at Caffè Panna, the vanilla ice cream is crafted with sea salt from Trapani, Italy along with Heilala pure vanilla paste.
Levain has collaborated with these ice cream shops in the past for limited edition ice cream sandwiches. But Levain à la Mode gives the customer a more custom experience. 'Do you break off the piece of the cookie and dip it into the ice cream? Do you eat your ice cream first? Last? Whichever way you wanna do it,' Maguire says. While there may be some weekends where unique flavors are available, Levain had no doubt that vanilla would be the best crowd pleaser.
'Our belief is that's the perfect pairing of the ice cream flavor and it also lets the cookies speak for themselves.'
Levain's Wainscott location in The Hamptons will be the first location to kick off Levain à la Mode on May 23. That location will source its ice cream from John's Drive-In. Every other location will begin the program on May 30. In Los Angeles, the ice cream will be from Wanderlust Creamery. At Chicago locations, the ice cream will be from Pretty Cool Ice Cream. In Boston, from J.P. Licks, and in Philadelphia, Milk Jawn.
Levain à la Mode
Mark Weinberg
A Cookie Empire
Levain's cookies have made the bakery a tourist attraction–outsiders refusing to leave town until they can get their hands on one. Yet it also has remained a gem that locals cherish.
For Levain, word-of-mouth marketing is still its most powerful tool. It provides a deeper sense of authenticity rather than going 'viral' in today's age of social media. "We don't chase fads,' Maguire says. 'We continuously go back to looking at it from our roots perspective and what an authentic 30-year bakery would do.'
Those roots stem from what Weekes and McDonald set out to achieve in 1995, which was not creating an incredible cookie. In fact, cookies were not even part of their original menu. They simply wanted to be a neighborhood bakery committed to highlighting all of their fresh baked products, which today range from artisanal loaves of sourdough and baguettes to muffins and brioches. 'This isn't a flash in the pan,' Maguire says. '[Our history is about] the quality of products, how we take care of people, and how we show up in the community.' Cookies became part of the equation when Weekes and McDonald were training for triathlons and looking for a high-quality snack that athletes could use as a satiating carb load.
For most of its 30 year history, Levain's growth beyond its heritage location on 74th and Amsterdam on New York's Upper West Side was limited to another shop in Harlem and its first location outside of New York City in East Hampton. It wasn't until private equity group Stripes purchased a majority stake in Levain in 2018 until the growth, while still strictly regimented, became exponential. 'We understand that scarcity for us is actually part of what makes us unique,' says Maguire. 'We're going to grow at a pace that we can absorb and at a pace that speaks to our involvement in the community.'
Levain Bakery CEO John Maguire
Mark Weinberg
Maguire was brought on as Levain CEO two years ago, and although he comes from leading big restaurant chains like Panera Bread, Friendly's and Johnny Rockets, he feels like it's a homecoming. 'My superpower as a CEO is I've run a bakery,' he says. 'I started with Panera as a frontline baker. We had about 16 locations. When I left 20 years later [as COO]
In 2023, Levain tested out its concept out West, opening up in the Larchmont neighborhood of Los Angeles. 'To really show you can make it and grow, you've got to be able to do it on the West Coast,' Maguire says. Levain is now investing more in the Southern California market with a new opening in early 2025 in Venice, which debuted with Levain's rare Black & White cookies. Now with 17 locations nationwide, Levain is set to open a new store later this year in Beverly Hills and in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. Five additional stores are set to open in 2026. 'It's not tremendous growth, but it's purposeful,' Maguire says. 'It's designed to deliver the same experience in the other markets that people get [in New York].'
Maguire's goal now is to maintain the neighborhood feel at Levain, like hiring employees who love the art of baking and making sure every product tastes just as good as its cookies. 'How do you make sure that we're creating a culture that's so rich that Levain will be successful in anyone's hands?' he says. 'Sales and profits are byproducts of doing other things well.'