Pam Weekes and Connie McDonald” width=”970″ height=”1235″ data-caption=’Levain co-founders Pam Weekes and Connie McDonald. <span class=”lazyload media-credit”>Melissa Kirschenheiter</span>’>
Now they’re cookie-ing in Los Angeles.
Levain Bakery, best known for its ooey-gooey, six-ounce cookies, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. And now Levain, which started as a tiny bread shop in New York’s Upper West Side, is also writing a new chapter in L.A.
After making their West Coast debut at a 4,000-square-foot space in L.A.’s Larchmont Village in 2023, Levain founders Pam Weekes and Connie McDonald are ready to give more of the city a sugar rush. The pair plans to open another location on Venice’s buzzing Abbot Kinney Boulevard in early April. Then, Observer has exclusively learned, Levain will open its third L.A. bakery in Beverly Hills, on a stretch of South Beverly Drive that’s become a formidable restaurant row.
“Pam and I just really love L.A.,” McDonald tells Observer. “We’ve been looking on Abbot Kinney Boulevard for about six years. That really felt like a great expression of who we are.”
The Abbot Kinney Levain will be a sun-kissed 1,928-square-foot corner space with the bakery’s signature deep-blue tiles alongside rich woods (maple, walnut and white oak) and big street-facing windows that will allow passersby to see bakers working in the kitchen.
Given their New York roots, it’s not surprising that Weekes and McDonald like being in strollable areas with vibrant dining and shopping options, along with significant residential density. This is a brand that could thrive in shopping centers, and Levain did take a look at The Grove in L.A., but charming neighborhoods are the bakery’s bread and butter.
“We’re very careful about where we open,” Weekes tells Observer. “We want to open in a place where we can become a part of the neighborhood. We want every place to feel like our first baby, West 74th Street. We want to get to know people. We want to have relationships with people. It takes a long time to find the right fit.”
As a nod to the bakery’s New York origins, Levain will bring back its black-and-white chocolate chip cookie exclusively to the Venice location for a limited time. (Levain introduced that cookie, a nod to New York’s popular bodega cookies, last year.) A bicoastal vibe will also be represented at the Venice Levain with a mural from L.A.-born, Brooklyn-based artist Janice Chang, who also created a mural for the Larchmont Village Levain.
Of course, it helps that many former New Yorkers live in Los Angeles.
“I remember the first time I got off the plane in L.A,” Weekes says. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is perfect. It’s like New York at a beach. It’s got everything I love right here.’ When we opened our first bakery in L.A., we had a lot of customers who used to come in when they were in New York. And we’ll be walking around and we’ll run into people we know from New York in Venice and Santa Monica.”
It’s important for Levain, which is opening near Erewhon in Venice, to feel like it also has roots in L.A. So Weekes and McDonald have hired a Venice general manager, Audrey Amara, who lives in the neighborhood and can ride her skateboard to work. And all proceeds from Levain’s opening day on Abbot Kinney Boulevard will be donated to St. Joseph Center, a social service organization that started in Venice.
Meanwhile, in Beverly Hills, Levain has signed a lease on South Beverly Drive, just south of Wilshire Boulevard, right by Hillstone’s South Beverly Grill. The home of the future Levain in Beverly Hills is a cozy 1,266 square feet, with an additional 400 square feet of mezzanine space.
“I never really pictured us in Beverly Hills,” McDonald says. “But I think that spot on South Beverly is kind of perfect. There’s a lot of neighborhood there.”
Beyond expansion, Weekes and McDonald are working on a book about Levain Bakery that they expect to be released in October.
“It will have a lot of archival pictures and a lot of snippets and interviews with people, both team members and customers, who we’ve worked with and known over the past 30 years,” Weekes says. “So that’s really kind of bittersweet and exciting and fun.”
Levain is also planning multiple collaborations, including a merchandise drop with Dinner Service that will feature shirts, sweatshirts and chore jackets, to celebrate its milestone anniversary.
And the journey will likely continue as Weekes and McDonald, who also have locations in Washington D.C., Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, look for more potential bakery spaces in Los Angeles and elsewhere in California.
“The thing that drives us the most is finding the right space, the right neighborhood,” Weekes says. “We are continuing to look. We both really love California.”
