William Greenberg Jr. Desserts

Upper East Side
1100 Madison Ave.
between E. 82nd/83rd Sts.

P: 212.744.0304

Upper West Side
285 Amsterdam Ave.
between W. 73rd/74th Sts.

P: 212.865.2621

A NYC bakery institution founded on the Upper East Side and known for old fashioned desserts, birthday cakes, and oh, those brownies.  Their Madison Avenue store has been open the longest, but they've made Manhattan's Upper West Side happy with a second storefront on Amsterdam Avenue.

What's great:

William Greenberg is beloved for their old-fashioned baked goods like simple apple pies, angel food cake, and boxes of small butter cookies and pecan sandies.  This is a great bakery to make a detour to if you're on the hunt for traditional Jewish sweets like hamantaschen, rugelach, or babka. And they do seasonal sweets throughout the year.

They make custom cakes and personalized cookies.  See their website for ordering online.

What to avoid:

This is not the bakery for trendy desserts. Instead here you'll always find some of the best classic sweets, like cupcakes, or black and white cookies, or a perfect seven layer cake.

What to know:

The fabled brownies come in multiple flavors (plain, with nuts, with cheesecake, caramel, rocky road, and blondies, and gluten free) and freeze really well, making them handy to keep on hand for unexpected company.  A William Greenberg frozen brownie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream would make any dinner guest really happy.

The bakery is dairy kosher.

They ship nationwide and if you live in NYC and order through Grub Hub, you'll get same day delivery.