Milk Bar (originally Momofuku Milk Bar) is a chain of dessert and bakery restaurants in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, founded by chef

Christina Tosi Christina Tosi (born 1981) is an American chef and cookbook author. She is founder and co-owner with Momofuku of Milk Bar and serves as its chef and CEO. ''Food & Wine'' magazine included her in their 2014 list of "Most Innovative Women in Food ...

. The chain has branches in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

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Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

, and

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. Tosi owns the chain along with investors. She is the primary recipe developer of Milk Bar's products.

History

Christina Tosi was working as pastry chef for

David Chang David Chang (Korean: ; born August 5, 1977) is an American restaurateur, author, podcaster, and television personality. He is the founder of the Momofuku restaurant group. In 2009, Momofuku Ko was awarded two Michelin stars, which the restaur ...

's Momofuku restaurants in 2008 when Momofuku's Ssäm Bar decided to expand into a neighboring vacant

laundromat A self-service laundry, coin laundry, laundromat, or coin wash is a facility where clothes are washed and dried without much personalized professional help. They are known in the United Kingdom as launderettes or laundrettes, and in the Unit ...

; Tosi proposed the idea to add a bakery. Chang provided seed money, and the first Momofuku Milk Bar opened in November 2008. Tosi created the

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

herself in Brush Script Medium. By 2012, Milk Bar had discontinued the use of "Momofuku" in its name and was operating several locations in New York City in addition to the original bakery in Manhattan's East Village. Since then, it has opened locations in Toronto, Washington, D.C., the

Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas (commonly referred to simply as The Cosmopolitan or The Cosmo) is a resort casino and hotel on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The resort opened on December 15, 2010, and is located just south of the B ...

, Los Angeles, and Boston. As of February 2019, Milk Bar employed 381 people at its various locations. The management team is almost all women. In 2019, Milk Bar changed the name of its signature ''crack pie'' to

Milk Bar Pie Milk Bar Pie is a dessert created by Christina Tosi while working at wd~50. It is the signature dish of Tosi's Milk Bar. Development Tosi first created the dessert as one of her offerings for family meal while working at wd~50. She describes r ...

, following criticism in the ''Boston Globe'' and other press concerning its allusion to the addictiveness of

crack cocaine Crack cocaine, commonly known simply as crack, and also known as rock, is a free base form of the stimulant cocaine that can be smoked. Crack offers a short, intense high to smokers. The ''Manual of Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment'' calls ...

. In the spring of 2020, Milk Bar began to sell cookies through online and national retail food stores. Milk Bar operates separately from Momofuku, although Chang remains a business partner. In 2017, the bakery received a $10 million dollar investment from venture capital fund RSE Ventures

Publications

Several cookbooks featuring recipes from the restaurant have been released, including ''Momofuku Milk Bar'' (2011), ''Milk Bar Life: Recipes & Stories'' (2015), ''Milk Bar: All About Cake'' (2018), ''Milk Bar: Kids Only'' (2020), and ''Every Cake Has a Story'' (2021).

Recognition

Trade magazine ''QSR'' in 2019 named Milk Bar to its list of most innovative fast-casual start-ups.

References

External links

* Bakeries of the United States Restaurants in Manhattan Restaurants established in 2008 2008 establishments in New York City {{Improve categories, date=October 2021