In time for his final week as The New York Times’ restaurant critic, Frank Bruni releases Born Round, an unlikely memoir about making peace with food.By Gabriella Gershenson

 By Gabriella Gershenson

In time for his final week as The New York Times’ restaurant critic, Frank Bruni releases Born Round, an unlikely memoir about making peace with food.

 

“In the book, you write about a good source of tartines near your place on the Upper West Side. Were you talking about Levain Bakery?
Yes, I live in Levain Bakery.

Their cookies to me are like kryptonite.
They’re horrible. I mean they’re great! But they’re cookie dough! I mean, that cookie is half cookie and half dough! I love peanut butter cookies, too. I wish Levain did a straightforward peanut butter cookie because they could probably do an amazing peanut butter cookie.

I bet if you asked them they would.
I would never do that.”

http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/restaurants-bars/77622/frank-bruni-revealed

The Cookie Maker

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/nyregion/16qbiteli.html

Quick Bite | Wainscott

Published: August 14, 2009

“Never have 12 cookies weighed so much,” said Michael Hirtenstein of Manhattan and Bridgehampton, lifting his purchase from the counter at Levain Bakery in Wainscott on a recent afternoon.

Levain’s signature cookies ($4) are indeed impressive in their heft and lumpy handmade charm. Each weighs six ounces and is nearly half as thick as it is wide. They come in four flavors: chocolate chip walnut, dark chocolate chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin and dark chocolate peanut butter chip.

“There’s kind of an art to scaling it perfectly,” said Connie McDonald, the co-owner with Pam Weekes of the 10-year-old bakery in Wainscott and its 14-year-old sister bakery on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The cookie’s thickness allows the center to be soft with melted semi-sweet chocolate chunks and chewy with raisins or nuts, while the outside remains crisp and firm. Substantial and satisfying, the chocolate chip walnut cookie is practically a meal in itself.

Levain produces fine artisanal breads (a crusty ciabatta is $4.50, a whole wheat walnut raisin is $6.75), bomboloncini (baked jelly doughnuts, $2 each), and flat pizza breads in flavors like caramelized onion with Parmesan or artichoke Gruyère ($7.50 each). Espresso ($1.50) and cappuccino ($2.75 small, $3.75 large) are also available. There is no table service, but there are benches to sit on.

Rustic fruit tarts are a specialty only at the East End location. A combination of strawberries, blueberries and peaches is framed in a light pie crust ($25 for a six-inch). The sweet tarts are seasonal pleasures, just like Levain’s Wainscott bakery. It closes for the year in late September. (Levain Bakery in Manhattan is open year-round.)

Levain Bakery, Wainscott Village Shopping Center, 354 Montauk Highway, Wainscott; (631) 537-8570. levainbakery.com. Open daily July through Labor Day, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Open weekends April through June, and from Labor Day until the last weekend of September (call for hours). SUSAN M. NOVICK