Levain Cookies, Beloved by New Yorkers, Now Available at Whole Foods | Eater

"Credited with popularizing oversized, warm cookies that are chewy on the inside and crispy on the outside, this Upper West Side bakery inspired numerous copycats and has expanded its reach by selling pre-baked, frozen cookies in grocery stores. After a regional rollout at Texas’ Central Market, Whole Foods began carrying three varieties — Chocolate Chip Walnut, Two Chip Chocolate Chip, and a Whole Foods-exclusive Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip — with the company stressing that cookies must remain frozen through distribution to retain the signature texture (a shelf-stable version proved unsatisfactory). If frozen cookies perform well, the bakery hopes to add other frozen items like cake and brioche, and it plans to open additional brick-and-mortar locations across the country while limiting expansion to what can preserve product quality; it currently operates multiple New York locations and one in Washington, D.C." - Jaya Saxena