Smooth as Butter: Mr. Lee of Lee Lee’s Bakery
A couple of years ago, my friend Tonya did a short piece about Lee Lee’s Bakery for UPTOWNflavor. Back then Mr. Lee was operating out of a tiny storefront that was easily overlooked if it wasn’t for the delicious sweet smells wafting out of the door. Admittedly the little bakery didn’t have a lot of charm and ambiance. It was indicative of the neighborhood at the time.
Photo by: Eating in Translation
As the neighborhood changed, so did Mr. Lee’s store. Not the quality of the baked goods, those were already wonderful, but the exterior of the store got a nice face lift to help it stand out. Now there is an inviting peppermint striped awning framed by two neatly trimmed topiary in decorative planters. Lee Lee’s could just as well be a little bakery on a side street in downtown Manhattan as it is a one man storefront operation in Harlem.
Photo: Tonya Conrad
Tonight a tipster sent a link letting us know that Mr. Lee was quoted in a recent New York Times article! Our Mr. Lee. The neighborhood baker. The gentleman who had the slogan ‘Rugelach by a Brother’ scripted on his window.
So, without further ado I present an excerpt of the Times article after the jump. I just hope that Mr. Lee will be able to keep up with the booming business that is sure to come with being mentioned in the Times.
Alvin Lee, the owner of Lee Lee’s Baked Goods in Harlem, may be one of the last commercial bakers in New York producing traditional butter-dough rugelach, the Austrian-German-Jewish cookies that are like tiny strudels. Most rugelach are made with vegetable shortening, which is much cheaper and longer-lasting. Shortening behaves well at most temperatures and makes crumbly, tender doughs, but has no flavor of its own. Mr. Lee’s rugelach are buttery, magnificent, and fleeting. He says he came out of retirement, after a 30-year professional baking stint, determined to master the rugelach genre. “I couldn’t find one that I wanted to eat, with all the old Jewish and German bakeries closing,” he said. “So I had to make them myself.”
Lee Lee’s Baked Goods
283 W 118th St near 8th Avenue
New York, NY 10026
(917) 493-6633
Related: Harlem Condo Life
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I think your good intentions of Mr. Lee deserve to know about Scott Campbell’s food at another uptown gem- New Leaf Restaurant at Fort Tryon Park,part of the Million Trees Project of Bette Midler- enjoy, I promise your readers will love you for this one, too.
Linda, send us the contact information and more details and we’ll check it out.
HarlemcondoLife.com recently featured and samples the goods from this lovely little place as well. Very special.
Yes and we linked to it at the end of our most recent post. Take a look.
does he just do the rugelach? or other items as well?
Other items as well…cheesecake, carrot cake, lemon cake…. Rugelach is his specialty.
Lee Lee is dynamite. I just wish he had more selection so I could stop in on the way to work. But boy are those rugehah unbelievable!
Plus his store looks GREAT now!
Doesn’t he have muffins?