Levain Bakery Cookies

Levain Bakery on the Upper West Side sells cookies the size of softballs that weigh about 6 ounces each. The line stretches down the block most afternoons because the cookies are genuinely unlike anything else I've tried. Crisp and almost caramelized on the outside, the center stays dense and underbaked, closer to raw dough than to a finished cookie. Chocolate chunks are thick enough that they don't fully melt so you get pockets of solid chocolate inside the warm dough. The dark chocolate chocolate chip is the one everyone talks about but I think the dark chocolate peanut butter chip is better because the salt from the peanut butter cuts through the sweetness. The bakery itself is tiny, maybe 400 square feet, with a counter and a few stools and that is it. They don't sell coffee or sandwiches or anything else, just cookies in 4 flavors, and the constraint makes the experience feel focused rather than limited. At $4.50 per cookie the price is high for a baked good, but you could split 1 between 2 people and both feel satisfied.