Magnolia Bakery
286 West 11th Street | also 401 Bleecker Street, 399 Bleecker Street | West Village | built 1859
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1803
Tavernkeeper Christopher Beakley buys the corner lots and lives here until his widow leaves in 1851
Long before the present building, Christopher Beakley bought the lots at this Bleecker and West 11th Street corner, with a dwelling house, in 1803. He had been a tavernkeeper at the Fly Market and made the house his home by 1806. His widow stayed until 1851. The Landmarks Commission suggests part of his house might survive inside the present building.
Source: media.villagepreservation.org
- 1850
Crockery merchant John B. Walton builds the five-story brick corner house with two Bleecker Street stores
In the 1850s the crockery dealer John B. Walton, who lived on Renwick Street, put up this five-story brick house on a double corner lot, also numbered 399 Bleecker Street. Two ground-floor stores face Bleecker. The windows shrink as they rise, and its paneled roof cornice with paired brackets matches that of the neighboring house at 397 Bleecker Street, one story lower.
Source: media.villagepreservation.org
- 1996
Jennifer Appel and Allysa Torey open Magnolia Bakery at 401 Bleecker Street
Appel and Torey opened the first Magnolia Bakery on the corner of Bleecker and West 11th Streets in 1996. The shop began making cupcakes from leftover cake batter, and they became popular enough that the bakery is sometimes credited with starting a 1990s cupcake craze. The two published The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook in 1999, the year Appel left the business.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1999
Magnolia Bakery Cookbook appears and co-founder Jennifer Appel leaves
In 1999 co-owners Jennifer Appel and Allysa Torey publish The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook, a collection of old-fashioned recipes from the bakery. The same year Appel leaves the business after a disagreement about expansion plans and opens her own Buttercup Bake Shop at 973 Second Avenue in Midtown East.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2005
Saturday Night Live's 'Lazy Sunday' sketch puts the bakery's storefront on television
The original shop's storefront and its cupcakes were shown in 'Lazy Sunday,' a digital short that aired on Saturday Night Live in December 2005. The bakery has also turned up in Sex and the City, the film Prime and The Devil Wears Prada. Allysa Torey sold the business to Steve Abrams the following year.
“The exterior of the original bakery, as well as its cupcakes, were featured in 'Lazy Sunday', a Saturday Night Live Digital Short broadcast in December 2005.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2006
Steve Abrams buys Magnolia Bakery, still a 620-square-foot shop on Bleecker Street
In 2006 Steve Abrams buys Magnolia Bakery, investing $1 million of his own money, according to Entrepreneur magazine. The Bleecker Street original is a 620-square-foot shop made famous by Sex and the City, and Allysa Torey's recipes stay at the core of the menu. The magazine later reports revenues above $23 million across six locations.
Source: entrepreneur.com
Further reading
- Magnolia BakeryWikipedia
- Then & Now photos: 286 West 11th Street (aka 399 Bleecker Street)Village Preservation: Greenwich Village Then & Now
Nearby
- 397 Bleecker Street4 entries
- 395 Bleecker Street1 entry
- Roger and Evelyn Baldwin House282 West 11th Street | 5 entries
- 393 Bleecker Street3 entries
- 400 Bleecker Street (the Peyton flats)400 Bleecker Street | 3 entries
- 403 Bleecker Street1 entry