You wouldn’t necessarily think that a pandemic would be the time to move to a new city, but three well-known bakeries that opened in the last month have something in common: They’ve all picked D.C. as the first location for expansion outside of their original homes.
Tatte Bakery and Cafe, a Massachusetts shop that spread to 16 locations in a little over a decade, opened its first café away from Boston in mid-August in West End. Mah-Ze-Dahr and Levain Bakery, which both built up a nationwide fan base from New York City, opened last week in Navy Yard and Georgetown, respectively.
Levain Bakery: For the Cookie Lovers
This New York City favorite’s main claim to fame is its dense, hockey-puck-sized cookies served right from the oven. In non-pandemic times, people line up around the block at seven stores across the city and document breaking open the goods to their gooey centers on social media.
Pam Weekes and Connie McDonald, Levain’s founders, struck up a friendship in the 1980s over triathlons. Through hours of training together, they sustained their energy with massive chocolate-chip walnut cookies and realized they both wanted to start a business some day — though not necessarily a bakery.
Levain began as a wholesale bread bakery in 1995 (the late chef Anthony Bourdain, who worked in the same restaurant as McDonald, was an early supporter) and expanded into a small retail bakery on 74th Street. Though cookies weren’t part of the initial menu, McDonald made a batch on a quiet afternoon and realized they’d need to start baking them all day long. Levain now sells thousands of cookies per day — including the original chocolate chip walnut, oatmeal raisin, and a dark chocolate cookie with peanut butter chips. They have plans in the works with equity firm Stripes Group, which became partners with the bakery last year, for a frozen, grocery-store variety.
But the founders stress that, despite their popularity, the most important piece for their bakeries is to hang on to a small neighborhood business model. They’re not trying to move too fast. They asked two long-time employees, Caroline Connors and Ann Marie Stachewicz, to run the Georgetown location, and they were drawn to the area because it reminded them of their first bakery’s foot traffic and energy.
“We want to make sure that we have something to contribute to wherever we are,” says Weekes. “We use the best ingredients, but we’re not fancy. We make things that we like. There’s something about a simple cookie, especially a chocolate chip cookie. Everyone can relate to that.”
The pastry menu mirrors their NYC locations: The famous cookies (including gluten-free and nut-free varieties), chocolate and savory brioche, whole-grain loaves, ciabatta, coffee cakes, walnut sticky buns, and Italian bomboloncini doughnuts, to name a few, alongside coffee, tea, milk, and hot chocolate. The bakery offers contactless payment and pickup in person and will eventually set up delivery through Doordash.
In celebration of the opening, the founders also collaborated with local pastry star Paola Velez, the co-founder of Bakers Against Racism who recently joined Compass Rose and Maydan and took home a RAMMY award, to come up with a limited-edition goodie that celebrates her Dominican heritage: a chocolate-based cookie with cinnamon and espresso, two types of chocolate, cashews, and sea salt. The cookie will be available until mid-October, and all proceeds go to local youth charity Horton’s Kids.
Levain Bakery Georgetown is located at 3131 M St. NW. Hours are 8 a.m.-8 p.m. daily.
Mah-Ze-Dahr: Traditional Desserts, Dressed Up
Pastry chef Umber Ahmad named her shop after an Urdu word that roughly translates to the “magic that makes something special.” It’s an appropriate name for a bakery with, as New Yorkers tell it, the “absolute best” vanilla-filled brioche doughnuts (ones “as chic as a non-French pastry can be”), brownies Martha Stewart calls “fantastically rich,” five-pound cheesecakes that are “fancy without being ostentatious,” and other treats with touches reminiscent of Ahmad’s world travels as a child.
Mah-Ze-Dahr Bakery’s Navy Yard transplant is steps from Nationals Park and more than two years in the making. For the bakery’s first move, Ahmad, a 2019 James Beard semifinalist, teamed up with Knead Hospitality + Design’s co-owners Jason Berry and Michael Reginbogin. Berry and Ahmad became close friends in Wharton’s MBA program and talked for years about partnering together. Mah-Ze-Dahr sits in the same building as Knead’s forthcoming restaurant The Gatsby with a separate space and entrance. The bakery’s original spring start, which would have dovetailed with the baseball season, was pushed back because of COVID-19.
“D.C. is one of those smart, elevated, thoughtful food cities and has been on our radar since day one,” said Ahmad. “Now that we’re here, we want to do two things: introduce ourselves to the food community and share what has gotten us the recognition and appreciate of our community in NYC. It’s our first date, so we’re putting on our best dress.”
The bakery will focus on its hits, says Ahmad, which “elevate traditional desserts”: chocolate croissants stuffed with two bars of semi-sweet Valrhona chocolate; the play on a New York-style cheesecake brightened by lemon zest and Madagascar vanilla bean; and brioche doughnuts piped through with pastry and dipped in vanilla sugar. For a D.C. original, the bakery will have a version of Cracker Jack with dark caramel and Aleppo pepper that gives off a subtle heat. Ahmad says they keep beverages, including coffee and tea, simple to pair with desserts the way you might pair a fine wine with dinner.
“We take the things you loved as a child — brownies, cookies, Cracker Jacks and turn them into the sumptuous adult version,” Ahmad says. “I also challenge myself to make food I don’t enjoy into something I want to eat every day.”
Ahmad, a former investment banker and MIT graduate, grew up traveling around the world with her family, who immigrated from Pakistan and raised her in Michigan. She had brioche pastries in France and learned to make Finnish cardamom breads and cookies from her nanny, who was like a grandmother to her and entwined baking with stories. All of these flavors come into play in her pastries. During her time in finance, she had chef Tom Colicchio as a client, who told her she had to do something with her food. Mah-Ze-Dahr Bakery started as a thriving wholesale business and opened its original in-person store in Greenwich Village in 2016. Starting online had its advantages, letting Ahmad easily track where repeat customers live. (She says D.C. always had a big fan base.)
Mah Ze Dahr offers outdoor patio seating and carryout and delivery through an online ordering system and Doordash, UberEats, and Tock. The D.C. location, which purposely vents the kitchen smells into the bakery, will also add to the savory menu down the road (think scrambled egg croissant breakfast sandwiches, seasonal tarts with fresh veggies) and offer birthday cakes and office catering.
Knead Hospitality + Design, which runs Succotash, Mi Vida, and The Grill, is planning to open more Mah-Ze-Dahr locations in its restaurants in the future and incorporate special desserts from the bakery into the menus.
“Everyone’s Mah Ze Dahr is different but hopefully it’s something you connect with, something that brings you back,” says Ahmad. “I’m looking forward to finding that connection with people and what D.C. cares about, and our menu will evolve with that.”
Mah-Ze-Dahr is located at 1201 Half Street SE. Hours are 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Friday and 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Tatte Bakery and Cafe: Israeli-Inspired Pastries and All-Day Breakfast
Tatte has become a force in and around Boston, with cafés known for all-day breakfast, shakshuka, sweet and savory tartines, and hearty salads and sandwiches from Israeli owner Tzurit Or. The first D.C. location opened in the West End last month, and more cafes are in the works for DuPont Circle (coming in October) and in Bethesda, with investment help from Panera Bread’s founder, Ron Shaich.
Or, who was a film producer, came to the United States 16 years ago. She says starting Tatte in 2007 was second nature. She grew up baking all the time with her family in Israel, influenced by her culture as well the European cities in which she later lived, and many of the items on the menu are recipes from childhood.
“I didn’t want to open in a new market just for the sake of doing it,” says Or. “It’s a huge step to leave home base and try another market, take the time to walk the streets and get to know the people. I can’t put my finger on it, but my first five days in D.C., I didn’t want to go back to Boston.”
The D.C. menu is identical to Boston’s locations, but the bakery plans to see what’s most popular in a new spot and make some adjustments later this fall. So far, it’s been challenging to keep a “sophisticated” pistachio and cherry tart and Or’s favorite pear pie in stock at the West End location. Inside, customers can watch bakers roll out dough and mix batter for croissants and sandwich bread, fruit tarts, Israeli bagels, cheesecakes, and other desserts, all baked onsite. There’s a full slate of coffee and tea drinks, halloumi cheese breakfast sandwiches, tartines with roasted peaches and ricotta or snap peas, prosciutto and poached eggs, and several dishes with lamb.
Or says she wasn’t sure what to expect in the first weeks, since the D.C. location doesn’t offer access to indoor dine-in options for now, but there was a line on opening day at 7 a.m. and a shortage on most items by close. Tatte’s D.C. location is open for takeout orders as well as seating on a 40-seat outdoor patio. Delivery is through DoorDash.
Amid the move and a summer of nationwide protests against police brutality, the bakery has been the subject of public criticism from its employees in recent months for what they say are patterns of discrimination against Black people and people of color in hiring, as well as racism from upper management, including Or. Some staff called the company’s support for the Black Lives Matter movement “performative,” and called out a lack of diversity in executive leadership and HR in a Change.org petition.
Or stepped down from her CEO position in July, a move she tells DCist was unrelated to the situation and had already been in the works. Tatte has chosen a new CEO but has not named the person who holds the position publicly. Or remains involved with the company.
Or says Tatte has hired diversity and inclusion consultants to conduct months of ongoing training at all levels and started investigations into discrimination complaints but declined to comment on specifics.
“It’s not a project that you implement and it’s done if you want to make a change,” Or says. “The real hard work for us is just starting in terms of our commitment to make sure that Tatte is always a safe place. It’s a serious matter and we’re committed to doing the work.”
Tatte Bakery and Cafe is located at 1200 New Hampshire Ave NW. Hours are 7 a.m.-8 p.m. daily.
