The economy may be taking a bite out of New York City's restaurant business, but that doesn’t mean you have to answer your molten chocolate cake jones with a trip to the supermarket freezer aisle. Your craving is a cookie away. Yes, a cookie.Manhattan’s Upper West Side is home to Levain Bakery. The bake shop occupies a small space on 74th Street, but its intimate setting and open kitchen are as inviting as the scent of freshly baked pastries that greet your senses as you enter the store.
Levain’s Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies are served straight off the baking tray. Their addictive texture intensifies the tasting experience (extra dark French cocoa is one of the culprits). As you bite into the cookie, half melted semisweet chocolate chips give way to a moist interior that tastes like a cross between a brownie and a flourless chocolate cake. Residual warmth emanating from the cookie’s center intensifies the delivery of flavor, amplifying deep, dark chocolate notes bathed in butter.
A single Dark Chocolate Chip Cookie costs $3.75 and is large enough to serve two. Warning: side effects include delirium, moans of pleasure, foot stomping joy, gluttony and use of the Lord’s name in vain.
Notes:
Levain Bakery is located at 167 West 74th Street in New York City. Store hours are Monday-Saturday 8am-7pm and Sunday 5am-7pm. If you don't live in the city, you can order their cookies online. 1-877-453-8246
