Levain Bakery

Pam Weekes and Connie McDonald opened the original Levain Bakery on West 74th Street in 1995, after months of long training rides together for an Iron Man triathlon convinced them to build something of their own. McDonald had gone back to cooking school and discovered bread baking there; Weekes had already baked professionally for New York restaurants. The chocolate chip walnut cookie that made the bakery famous grew directly out of that training: a dense, hefty cookie sized to fit in a bike…