Welcome to the West Coast Levain Bakery

 Levain Bakery

227 North Larchmont Blvd. 

Los Angeles, CA 90004

Wrapping up our day trip to LA, we needed something sweet to end our adventures in the City of Angels. Los Angeles has some iconic desserts to choose from; Churros from Olvera Street, Hot Fudge Cake from Bob's Big Boy in Burbank, a slice of pie from either Pie N' Burger or Apple Pan, or a scoop of ice cream from Fosselman's. So naturally, with all these great options, we decided to try an NYC transplant, Levain Bakery. 

Levain is an iconic bakery in New York and across the country. They have so many accolades that this could quickly become one of my longest posts if I listed them all. They have been named the best cookie in the US numerous times. Almost all the food people I follow on Instagram have made a pilgrimage to their bakery when visiting the Big Apple. 

Two friends started this business by selling bread to some of the best restaurants in New York City. They opened their first storefront on West 74th Street in 1995, which is still open for business. At first, they sold just their bread, rolls, and loaves. They made a chocolate walnut cookie as a test batch, and they flew off the shelf. People began talking, and soon, they had lines outside waiting for their cookies. They now have nine locations in NYC, along with storefronts in Boston, Chicago, Washington DC, Chicago, and their first on the West Coast, in Larchmont Village. 

We arrived just before 4 p.m. and were met by a small line of about three people. When they first opened almost a year ago, people waited for hours. Luckily, the lines have diminished, and we were in and out within 15 minutes. Parking can be tricky around here, but we parked in the Wells Fargo lot next to the bakery and told the security guard, Reggie, that we were just getting cookies, and he allowed us to park there. We got him a cookie for letting us park there. He probably goes home with a dozen cookies every day. A good gig. 

Before we got to the cookies, Katie wanted to sample their Sour Cream Coffee Cake ($4.75) and Blueberry Muffin ($4.75) first. I liked both of these. They were both sweet but not overly so. I believe the sour cream in the coffee cake suppressed the usual sweetness you would get with a typical coffee cake. I would have liked the cinnamon crumble to be more distributed throughout instead of concentrated on the bottom of the slice. 

The blueberry muffin was studded with plenty of fresh blueberries throughout the muffin. It had a nice crystalized sugar top and was buttery and flavorful at its base. It was way better than any muffin we have had in recent memory. 

For the main event, most people visit Levain Bakery because of the cookies. We got the Two-Chip Chocolate Chip Cookie ($5) and the Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie ($5). These hefty cookies are probably best to share, so you can try more than one variety. The two-chip cookie was loaded with chocolate chips, so you get a lot of chocolate in each bite. The outer cookie had a good crunch, while the inside portion was a tad underbaked for my liking. Still, it was terrific, and I microwaved this for about ten seconds to replicate that fresh, out-of-the-oven feel. 

The chocolate peanut butter cookie was my jam. It was delicious. Again, this cookie had a nice crunchy outer shell, but this one was baked a bit more inside, which I appreciated. It had the consistency of a gooey brownie, and the numerous peanut butter chips added a nice savoriness to the cookie. Really, well done, and writing this has got my mouth watering. 

Levain Bakery really lived up to the hype. Their baked goods are top-notch; hopefully, they will come to OC someday. I can't help but compare these cookies to my favorite OC bakery, Paderia Bakehouse. I'd give the nod to Paderia for their chocolate chip cookie, but the peanut butter chocolate chip cookie is better at Levain. In my opinion, these two bakeries are on par with each other. I'm happy we got to try Levain and did not have to travel all the way to NYC. They fit right in with the other great desserts available in LA.   

Out of five streetcars (because this spot is in Larchmont Village, which became a streetcar suburb of Los Angeles in the 1920s), five being best to zero being worst, Levain Bakery gets 4 streetcars. 

For more information about Levain Bakery, head to their website by clicking here: https://levainbakery.com/