Welcome (Back) To the UWS, Kosher Sweets

The Upper West Side is getting a little sweeter, with a new outpost of the popular Upper East Side bakery William Greenberg Desserts.

“It’s a vibrant, young, exciting location,” Carol Becker, who owns the bakery, told the West Side Spirit. “The response has been unbelievable.” Situated at 285 Amsterdam Avenue, in the former home of the Jacques Torres chocolate shop between West 73rd and 74th Streets, it’s the independent bakery’s third location (two other stores already exist on Madison Avenue between East 82nd and 83rd Streets and in Chelsea, at Hudson Yards). And it’s nearly half a decade in the making.

The new Amsterdam Avenue storefront is slated to open on Monday, with much of the same charm as the existing — and renovated — shops: marble counters, red Italian-made lights and a “sparkly” red floor. “We really took that red and ran with it,” Becker said.

It also boasts a menu of “all the classics” over which customers have long salivated: black and white cookies, brownies, babka, schnecken and rugelach, to name only a smattering. Some customers, Becker said, have returned to explain, “William Greenberg made my wedding cake 50 years ago, can you replicate it for our anniversary?”

A Rich History

Greenberg first opened his namesake bakery in 1946, with money he’d won playing poker after serving with the Navy in World War II. Since then, shops have popped up — if only briefly — across the city, including one on the Upper West Side that Becker recalled lasting less than a year, about two decades ago.

Becker has run the business for the past 15 years, after launching her own baking company, originally out of her kitchen. “I just needed to stay true to his legacy and stay true to what he built,” she said of Greenberg’s vision.

Mixing Old And New

The new Upper West Side store will be in keeping with the bakery’s Jewish roots; it’s Kosher certified by Rabbi Aaron Mehlman, of National Kosher Supervision, and offers all the usual traditional treats. It’s also less than a three-block walk from the Marlene Meyerson JCC, with which Becker suspects William Greenberg Desserts shares an overlap in clientele.

“The majority of our customers aren’t even aware that it’s a Kosher bakery,” Becker said, but “for our regulars, it’s become a place where they know they can come — there’s not a question that it’s going to be Kosher, there’s not a question that it’s going to be delicious.”

A line of vegan desserts she’s been dreaming up might be available by the end of the year — and different kinds of bread, like baguettes, could become an offering exclusive to the Upper West Side store. “It’s been a dance,” Becker said of incorporating new with old.