Levain

Connie McDonald and Pam Weekes started Levain as a bread bakery on West 74th Street in 1995, dreaming up a dense, half-pound chocolate-walnut cookie somewhere along their training runs for triathlons and Ironmans. Business went quiet some afternoons until Connie set out a tray of the cookies, portioned out by the fistful, and a 1997 New York Times "Temptations" column by Amanda Hesser turned the small counter into a line down the block. The original shop still bakes that same cookie today, alongside baguettes, brioche and loaf cakes.