NYC Dining: Max Brenner
Max Brenner: Chocolate By The Bald Man
841 Broadway New York, NY
141 2nd Avenue New York, NY
The new Manhattan Max Brenner cafe/restaurant/chocolate shop, which has only been open for three weeks, already has all the makings of a complete Willy Wonka experience, minus the Oompa Loompas. Willy’s been replaced by a charming fashionable bald Israeli man, but if you’re anything like me, this restaurant is a dangerous place to be, and you’ll have to resist the temptation of going completely Augustus Gloop on the place.
Chocolate Pizza. Oh yes.
Croissants
Waffles with Chocolate Sauce, which was put out for sampling.
Dark Chocolate Granita. I highly reccomend these.
Choices, choices.
Chocolate Waffle Balls. Mmmmm.
The “Bald Man” himself, Oded Brenner, founder of Max Brenner chocolates.
August 25, 2006 at 5:30 pm
It’s crazy how Max Brenner (who is a fictional character by the way!) chocolates has exploded. I remember when it was just a small little chocolate shop on emek rafiam street in Jerusalem just 10 years ago. The brand was actually purchased by Elite a few years ago.
At the restaurants in Israel you can get a salad with white chocolate shavings. Do they have that at the NY branch as well? I have to say, the NY branch looks substancially cooler than the two here in Tel Aviv and Herzliya.
August 25, 2006 at 5:51 pm
Wait a second, are you telling me the guy in the photographs above is an actor? He told me he was Max Brenner! The woman he was with was his publicist.
August 25, 2006 at 6:07 pm
Lol. No actor. The name Max Brenner is the combined names of the two founders - Oded Brenner and Max Fichtman. I think that is Oded pictured above. It’s marketing baby!
So what did you eat!?!?!?
August 25, 2006 at 7:48 pm
You’re correct, Harry, I’ve corrected it in the blog.
What did we eat? I got two of the brownie cookies to take home, we had two sandwiches, a ham and cheese and a chicken with sundried tomato, the dark chocolate granita, and Oded fed me some dark chocolates from that large glass display case.
August 26, 2006 at 12:42 am
lucky you. if oded fed me anything i’d melt into a pool.
August 26, 2006 at 4:09 am
[...] NYC Dining: Max Brenner [...]
August 26, 2006 at 9:53 am
[...] WordPress tags led me to Off the Broiler. Wow. This guy goes to amazing New York restaurants, takes mouth-watering photos, shares clever recipes. Just go. Look once. See if you can find the chocolate pizza. (If you hate to search, click here. It is the second photo down.) [...]
August 26, 2006 at 2:51 pm
Wonderful!
August 29, 2006 at 10:40 am
Chocolate Crunchy Waffle Balls - $1.95 per oz! ARE YOU INSANE!?!?!?!? That’s $31.20 a pound! The best steaks are less than that! Yuppies are nuts!
September 1, 2006 at 2:48 pm
I was going to say that about the waffle balls. Insane. Are they worth it?
September 5, 2006 at 6:55 am
So….. how are the prices at the souvenir shop?
Anyone has prices for hug cup? suckao cup?
Thanks,
The Colonel ( now retired)
September 8, 2006 at 12:51 pm
Hi
I’m Homary from Tokyo……..Use to live in NYC
I am very interesting about who is investing to Max Brenner’s chocolate shop ???
September 8, 2006 at 2:00 pm
Max Brenner is owned by Elite, a large food and confectionary company based in Israel.
http://www.elite.co.il
September 18, 2006 at 12:23 am
WOW I want to go there lol !!!
Bet you won’t find any Mormons there though…..
They can’t have Choc… anyways …
September 25, 2006 at 10:36 am
My 19 year old son took me to Max Brenner in downtown Sydney Australia this past July. Had the spicy Mexican hot chocolate and fresh strawberry chocolate fondue. To absolutely die for. I am booking my flights back to “visit my son”, but to really go back to Max’s.
September 28, 2006 at 2:43 pm
[...] I’m not the type of person who can see a shop sign that reads Max Brenner: Chocolate by the Bald Man and just keep walking. Upon entering, I found myself in one of the most over-the-top, overwhelming spaces that I’ve encountered in NYC. Everything is some shade of chocolate, and most things are chocolate in this 5,000 square foot space near Union Square. At the crossroads of the gift shop, pastry counter, and restaurant areas, you’ll see bins full of hot chocolate powders, a glass-topped table full of truffles, chocolate cakes, chocolate marshmallow pizzas, chocolate bar-filled bagels ready to be warmed, shelves of chocolate candies in boxes, and… sandwiches. There are fantastic pictures here. It feels a bit gimmicky, but it all comes out on just this side of charming — if you know that one thing is true within this chocolate fog, it’s that there’s obviously a passion for celebrating chocolate here. I kept wondering, “Who are these people and how did they come to do so much with chocolate???” This article explains that Max Fichtman and Oded Brenner launched it ten years ago in Israel. They sold it to a large food manufacturing company that has been opening franchises around the world. Apparently, Oded Brenner has taken on the Max Brenner role. He is bald. [...]
September 30, 2006 at 11:29 am
[...] i have gotten a glimpse of the promised land, courtesy of this quite cool blog, and i must tell you…it looks good. i will have to make a pilgrimmage soon so that i may make my offerings to the goddess, Chocolatl. [...]
October 2, 2006 at 9:47 pm
Max Brenner is something else! We are witnessing a chocolate revolution and Max Brenner’s kinda like fonzie jumpin over the shark. The Chocolate “lifestyle” as we know it is now dead and gone with the creation of his 5,000 square foot Applebee’s in Union Square New York. Trendestters like Jacques Torress are alive and well not like the candy-created vision for which Wonka-like “Max Brenner has been created. Well iIt was fun while it lasted. Me, I’d rather feast at the originals, Payard, Maison du Chocolate, Chocolate Bar and Li Lac. Give me back the old days please….
October 3, 2006 at 7:30 pm
Normally I can resist sweets, but Maxie Brenner has me drooling and reaching for an insulin shot.
Is there anything available that’s sugar-free? I hope, I hope…
October 13, 2006 at 1:02 pm
These photos are amazing. I’m going to have to go and check this out. And then I won’t be able to fit through the door to leave, I’ll have to live there forever and ever. At least I’ll save on rent.
October 13, 2006 at 3:47 pm
Check out this website that did a cool video profile on the place: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/Max+Brenner+/bcpid78334397/bctid184432227
This place is absolutely the best place I’ve ever seen in New York.
January 19, 2007 at 7:02 pm
I recently went to sydney on holiday and discovered this shop and fell in love with it. Unfortunately i live in new zealand and can only dream of it as there are no Max Brenner cafes in New Zealand. I am so hoping it comes to New Zealand.!
January 30, 2007 at 7:41 am
Is anything kosher here?
January 30, 2007 at 10:32 am
Only the boxed stuff from Israel.
February 6, 2007 at 2:24 pm
I JUST WANTED 2 KNOW IF U GUYS KNOW WAT TRAIN AND STOP IS BY THIS PLACE???? IM VERY XCITED 2 GO THERE!!!!!!!!!!!
February 17, 2007 at 5:06 pm
When did this open in NY??????????????????
March 8, 2007 at 6:28 am
I went to this place last weekend. The service was totally horrible. There was a brown-haired waitress that was the rudest, most conceited person I have ever met in my life. Never going back! and the place is so over-priced. go to veseleka for your coffee and deserts.
April 6, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Hi. I cited your article in my own review about the restaurant. Thanks, and check it out!
April 6, 2007 at 4:52 pm
omg! this looks fantastic! i am DEFINETLEY gonna try this stuff out!!!!!!!!!
love ya!
Nikki
April 27, 2007 at 12:02 pm
This place is amazing. yesterday i descovered it, and i fell in love.
i already wanna go back.
you can just love it. good service and great food
very well recomanded
June 18, 2007 at 1:39 am
I work there. Everything is kosher.
Oded Brenner is now “known” as Max Brenner, he created the whole idea and concept, it’s not a “marketing baby”.
I personally also think everything sold in the chocolate shop e.g. waffle balls - are an insane, not-worth-it rip-off. but the chocolate bar is good =)
July 9, 2007 at 11:44 pm
Hey are there no maxs in NZ? Come on !!! I had the ultimate experience first on a holliday to paramatta, Australia. If its on the cards, this place would go of in my little country! If I am stupid, tell me where I can order these wickid chocolate products in NZ. Please. Best hot chockys ever.
July 16, 2007 at 5:34 am
[...] Max Brenner is an Israeli company (the name is a composite of the two original owners), has branches in Australia and other parts of the globe as well, and I’m told they do a mean hot chocolate in their cafes. It would seem from the packaging that there is as much emphasis on marketing as on chocolate, but it seems to be working. There are photos of one of the NY shops and one of the original owners here. [...]
July 29, 2007 at 10:08 pm
I ate at the NYC location at 14th st and had the Chocolate Mess gooey cake. It was awesome!
August 14, 2007 at 4:45 pm
If you want bad service and food cooked in dirty pans then go here. Also, noisy from workers fixing broken furniture.
August 15, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Nina, did we go to the same place?!! I was there today, a day after you, & the service was excellent, the food was chocgasmic!!!! The mexican spicy hot chocolate was out of this world.
August 19, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Fun, ridiculously indulgent. Food not so great but chocolate and desserts fabulous. The New York of my chldhood had an ice cream parlor called Jahn’s where they served crazy sundaes–This shop is a chocolate reincarnation of the old ice cream parlor. Just what NYC needed. Guaranteed to make you smile
August 24, 2007 at 12:48 am
Everyone says the food is bad, but I really enjoyed the tofu sandwich with salad (a bit more dressing then I might have preferred, but tasty). Anybody else enjoy the food or am I crazy?
The food was slowish, but in compensation (which seemed overkill, because it wasn’t that slow) I was instructed in no uncertain terms to order a free desert (that’s a good thing)! Since my server was someone other than the manager-type who told me that, it was rung up on the tab, but then they took it right off…and I loved it, it was the amazing chocolate cake the New York Magazine article hated.
I’d describe this place as “Manhattan Casual,” with atmosphere, prices and food (pretty respectable veggie sandwiches, as least) to match. I’d certainly go back. It isn’t a “power lunch,” kinda place, but it’s fun and I found the food to be quite edible.
November 15, 2007 at 9:06 pm
woowwwooooowwwwwwwwwooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwoooooooowwwwww
that looks so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
December 3, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Take me there NOW!
January 12, 2008 at 12:17 am
….I WANT TO TELL YOU ALL THAT I JUST WATCHED “PAULA’S PARTY ” ON FOOD NETWORK AND
MAX BRENNER WAS ON THERE…… IT WAS AWESOME TO SEE THE DESSERT HE MADE …AND WATCH HIM AND PAULA…AND AS ALWAYS SHE WAS GREAT…..I LOVE YOU PAULA……
MS. D.C. DEB ….FROM BREEZEWOOD, PA..
March 3, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Someone above mentioned Mormons don’t eat chocolate. Hahaha… I’m about as Mormon as they come and I’ll tell ya, I can’t wait to go this place! The mo’s most certainly eat chocolate.
… and I’m about to gorge myself silly.