William Greenberg Desserts

The black and white cookie, then everything around it

The case is led by the black and white cookie: a cake-like base under half chocolate and half vanilla icing, made fresh each morning and tied to this bakery since 1946. Around it sits a dense New York Jewish bakery program of babka, traditional schnecken, hamantaschen, butter cookies, linzer tarts, chocolate chip, sugar and oatmeal raisin cookies, and brownies. It is a list that has barely moved in eight decades, and that is the appeal rather than a limitation.

The rest of the case leans fresher and lighter. Lemon bars, fresh fruit tarts and strawberry cream cake are made daily, alongside cheesecake, berry pies, cakes and gluten-free items. Custom black and white cookies, personalized cookies and made-to-order cakes handle birthdays and holidays, which is a large part of what this counter does. Gift boxes and gluten-free favorites stay in rotation alongside them.

A kosher bakery in its eighth decade

William Greenberg Desserts has been a Manhattan kosher bakery since 1946, with a Madison Avenue flagship and an Upper West Side shop. It is a retail counter rather than a dining room, and the model is the everyday pickup: a box of cookies for a home, an office, a holiday or a family table, chosen at the case and carried out.

Owner Carol Becker has added a plant-based chapter with a cookbook, William Greenberg Desserts Bakes Vegan, written in response to demand for more parve kosher desserts. That work brings vegan cookies, cakes, tarts and savory breads alongside the traditional program without displacing it. The tone of the place is established rather than novel, built on repeating a few things the same way for decades.

Build the box in order

Start with the black and white cookie, then move to the enriched doughs: babka and traditional schnecken foreground the Jewish bakery side and give the box its backbone. Hamantaschen, linzer tarts, butter cookies, brownies and cheesecake make the order fuller without repeating a texture.

For brightness, add lemon bars, fresh fruit tarts, strawberry cream cake or a berry pie, all of which cut through the richer cookies. For a celebration, the same vocabulary turns into personalized cookies and custom cakes. The strongest order stays simple: black and whites first, then babka or schnecken, then whatever the occasion needs. Nothing here requires explaining at the counter, which is exactly what a neighborhood bakery of this age is for.