An old photo of a long line outside of Levain Bakery at 167 West 74th Street
The lines they are a-changin.’
Last week, a reader messaged us through our tip line about “an amazing thing happening every day on Columbus and 74th Street,” describing the extremely long lines of young people waiting to buy cookies at Crumbl, especially “after school lets out.”
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This got us thinking about the famously long lines at the original Levain Bakery, located just down 74th Street, and whether they’re still the longest lines in town. We can make two conclusions with confidence: they’re not the longest during the week, and it’s not where the youngest cookie consumers are queuing up.
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ILTUWS has been following Crumbl Cookies since they announced they were coming to the UWS in 2022. We attended their grand opening in January 2023, and Crumbl even made it onto our Upper West Side Cookie Crawl later that month.
In our coverage of Crumbl’s opening day on the Upper West Side, we talked about the brand’s explosive growth since its founding in Provo, Utah in 2017. When the UWS location opened, Crumbl had 600 bakeries in 47 states. Now, the cookie company has around 1,000 shops across the US, Canada and Puerto Rico. This raises the question: How are there such long lines at a big chain’s Upper West Side location when we have so many quality cookie options in the neighborhood? As Crumbl’s home-state news outlet, Deseret News, aptly put it, “Crumbl seemingly perfected the concept of a marketing company that also sells cookies.”
The line at Crumbl around 4:50 p.m. on Wednesday
Friday after 8 p.m.
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Crumbl has excelled at content marketing, especially to Gen Z on social media. They boast 5.9 million followers on Instagram and 9.2 million on TikTok, and their fan-run subreddit ranks in the top 5% by size. Every week, Crumbl generates a wave of excitement with its “menu drop,” announcing five new cookies to join its Milk Chocolate Chip mainstay. Sometimes, the new batch features rare cookies or world premieres. If you’re familiar with the Pokemon expression, “Gotta catch ‘em all,” it’s much the same with Gen Z trying to catch all the Crumbl cookies. Reviewing these sugary treats on social media is currently en vogue, and Crumbl’s pink boxes—first made famous in the Southern California donut scene—have become iconic.
We made multiple visits to both Crumbl and Levain last week. Keep in mind that Levain Bakery was acquired in 2019 by the Stripes Group, a private equity firm, and has since embarked on a national expansion. They now have 18 locations including nine in NYC and others across five states (Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maryland, Illinois, California) and Washington, DC.
Crumbl on Thursday at 3:40 p.m.
On Wednesday at 5:49 p.m., Crumbl had a line around the corner, while it was smooth sailing in and out at Levain—no line. We went again on Thursday at 3:39 p.m., and the same story played out at both shops. This time, we walked into Levain and asked a staffer if they had noticed a drop in line size since the brand’s expansion. “Yes and no,” they replied, citing that it depends on the day, but on weekends, people still accumulate outside consistently. Levain has 569k followers on Instagram and 14.6k on TikTok. Of course, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try their seasonal cookie, Fall Chocolate Chunk, which was warm and delicious.
Levain on Thursday at about 3:45 p.m.
Levain’s Fall Chocolate Chunk
We headed back to 74th Street at 4:57 p.m. on Friday and again, the only people we saw lining up were waiting to spend money at Crumbl. We decided to chat with a few of them to uncover the appeal.
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“I think it’s the hype,” said Haylee Gonzalez. “Because there’s only about six Crumbl [locations] in New York City.” Gonzalez added that her friend is impressionable and you see lots of people making Crumbl reviews on TikTok, which makes you want to create a video and see what others are saying about it. “You want to fit in, right?”
Gonzalez was joined by her cousin JoJo and neighbor Amra Ibraimi. Haylee told us she posts Crumbl reviews on her Instagram and that she and Ibraimi started coming weekly since last summer. Before that, Haylee thought Crumbl was just a “nasty little sugar cookie.” She added, “It’s pretty good, but they’re kind of raw sometimes.” JoJo said he’d never gotten a raw one and that his favorite cookie they’ve made so far is the Cookie Monster. Ibraimi prefers the classic Pink Sugar. Haylee couldn’t decide on a favorite but she enjoys the limited-edition cookies the most. As it turns out, Haylee was most excited for the newly released Confetti Cake, which was launched in celebration of Crumbl’s 7th anniversary.
Shortly after, we spoke with three students who’d just walked out of the shop with their cookie haul. “I’ve never had it before, and they have, and I really wanted to try it because we’ve seen it on TikTok and stuff,” said Layla, who was joined by her friends Zoe and Mya. The trio had told us they waited two hours from the beginning of the line to walking out. The initial wait was an hour and a half, but they lost Mora’s order, so they had to wait an additional 30 minutes for it to be ready. Crumbl did give Mora an extra cookie for her inconvenience, and kudos to her friends for standing by her before digging in.
Mora chose the Caramel Shortbread featuring Twix. After taking her first bite, she gave us her review: “It tastes like a Twix. I think they executed that part very well. I like the texture of the cookie and how soft it is. It was definitely not worth two hours, but I would mobile order it and pick it up next time.”
Never heard of it. Couldn’t care less. Market that Crumbl.
You can’t really miss it if you’re ever on Columbus in the 70s.
Mindy seems like she’d be a real hoot at parties.
Crumbel cookies aren’t very good.
Levain are okay.
Jacques Torres better than both, but gone from the UWS.
Janie’s cookies are the best cookie in the city. There’s an UWS location and a west village location.
Boy do I miss the cookies and ice cream sandwiches at Jacques. Also miss the days of Petrossian’s PERFECT choc chip cookies.
Crumbl’s ingredients are…well, I’ll let you be the judge. Artificial flavors, seed oils, high fructose corn syrup, and harmful dyes, just to name a few.
Crumbl cookies are vile. Chip City is vastly superior.
Quality over quantity, Crumbl sucks.
I’m glad someone finally wrote a piece about this.. I live nearby and went to Crumbl a few times when it first opened. There was literally never anyone in there. The cookies are ok, but nothing to write home about, and certainly nothing to line up around the block for. When these lines started happening, I assumed it was due to some viral marketing to zoomers based on who was lining up. Glad to be validated! lol
Long lines to buy half raw cookies that are best eaten with a fork. No thanks. I live on 74th and the lines are ridiculous. I can deal with it, it’ll fade out. But what I can’t deal with is its customers simply dropping the ubiquitous pink boxes all the way down my street when they’re done photographing/posting/eating.
Crumbl and many of its customers are not a good neighbors. That is what makes me upset.
Good for the business but terrible for the neighborhood. Cars (uber) were honking until before midnight on Saturday. You know, young people are the richest and commute with uber…
I don’t call these lines amazing. I call them signs of a food that isn’t as good as people think.
I have a suspicion that Levain’s lines would be longer if they also changed their offerings each week. (This is not a suggestion, Levain!)
Levain has a second location in the 70s on the UWS, so its patrons are split in two—shorter lines.
Yes, Jane is correct. Levain opened a much larger store a few blocks from the original, which is a tiny basement space. But it still has lines every weekend. And that’s after 30 years! And there is a reason….superior cookies. Crumbl is just sugary overpriced crap.
One can probably sell warmed-up vomit to idiot GenZ TikTokers, for 5 minutes of hype…
Great write-up. Love this look at the fight over the best UWS cookies. Had no clue Crumbl has about 1,000 shops, that’s wild. Even if you eat Crumbl cookies, you should still continue going to Levain, as you can get Crumbl anywhere in the US, Canada or PR (apparently.) Thanks for this well-done story.
I’ve did the Upper West Side Cookie Crawl with my friends over the summer. Loved the walking route and wonderful cookies.
In the Gauntlet of Chocolate section, the most interesting part was how Crumbl Cookies just cannot compete with LeVain and Chip City. LeVain was my fav but Chip City is a great one too. I have no plans to return to Crumbl. I saw the light. Lol
This article reminded me of that. I guess Crumbl helps keep the riff raff away from the good spots. Haha. Thank you? Just don’t go out of business.
Keep an eye on the lines at Salt and Straw.
Look at Crumbl showing some rizz. But IRL Levian is far superior. (Note this boomer required assistance writing this)
Let’s keep it that way! The adults can eat the “real” cookies with honest ingredients and baked with love, and let the kids eat the twix cookies. It’s a win win.