Michael and I walk past this place little bakery all the time on 1st ave. between 13th and 14th st. It always looked so janky and bare bones. With just a few stacks of cookies visible in the window. I was convinced for the longest time it was just an elaborate front for drugs. Maybe I take Weeds to seriously. But come on, it is called The Green Bakery and it's hard to imagine that selling a few cookies per day could pay the rent on prime East Village storefront.
We finally stopped in one day to get some cookies and OMG they are amazing! The next day someone told Michael that they are actually a part of City Bakery so now we know where the money comes from. Yelp has a thread about now that the cupcake craze is winding down (doubt that!) in NYC they want to start a cookie craze. In my research for posting to the thread, first I learned that the real name of the bakery is Birdbath - Build a Green Bakery. And on their website, they offer the following justification for calling it Green :
We've built a bakery with walls made of wheat And cups made of corn which are biodegradable. The display countertop and shelves made from 100% recycled paper -
a remarkable new material. We are wind-powered. Our paper bags have no wax because wax is petroleum and we're reducing our use of it in every form. Our floor is reclaimed wood from Pennsylvania: no new trees were cut down for us to have exquisite lumber, and relatively little energy was needed getting it to New York. The stains and sealers for the wood are water-based. The paint - indoor and outdoor - is non-toxic made in a factory that uses low-energy, gravity-fed machinery. The front door has been in use since at least 1937, and the tin ceiling may be older than that. The light fixtures are vintage and the light bulbs are long-lasting energy savers. We bake in our East Village location in Manhattan and deliver to our West Village shop by bicycle-driven rickshaw. The pastry is made only from organic flour procured east of the Mississippi, along with organic sugar and organic butter and organic chocolate and organic oats and organic raisins and organic walnuts. Honey is made two hours outside of the city; the organic coffee is roasted about the same distance away. Milk and cream served in the store come from a family farm just north of Manhattan and the entire process for milking the cows to bottling takes place on that farm. We compost used coffee grounds every day. We offer a 25% discount if you arrive by bicycle or skateboard! Our staff wears custom jackets made from linen, hemp and vintage women's dresses from the '50's.
Every time I've been they have thrown in extra treats gratis, and the huge cookies are like $2 so they are fairly cheap to start off with. Last November I tasted their pumpkin pie and it was the best ever! But they were only selling whole ones. They have a new location at 175 7th Ave (@ Charles street).
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