Say Au Revoir to Mah-Ze-Dahr
Mah-Ze-Dahr, the high-end bakery known for its cheesecake and brownies, has been given the boot from its West Village location. A two-week eviction notice for the business was posted in April, and the storefront is now dark. As of last week, a notice was posted to the bakery’s website stating that there is an “e-commerce shipping hiatus” and orders will resume “next week.” We tried to get some clarity on the situation, but texts and emails to owner Umber Ahmad, and others at Mah-Ze-Dahr, all went unanswered.
Ahmad, a former investment banker, and Shelly Acuña launched Mah-Ze-Dahr in 2013 as an online business with backing and a gold stamp of approval by Tom Colicchio. Acuña left in 2017, by which point the business had become known for its doughnuts, brownies, chocolate-loaf cake, and a cheesecake that Grub once deemed New York’s best, enough to give it good standing when it finally did go brick-and-mortar. In 2015, Mah-Ze-Dahr put down roots at 28 Greenwich Street, and Ahmad spoke about plans for international partnership and expansion to Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; and elsewhere around the country.
Meanwhile, its West Village landlord first filed a petition over $107,751.93 in unpaid rent and fees in July 2022. A second case ended in August 2024 with Mah-Ze-Dahr agreeing to pay the court-ordered judgment of $160,099.52. By December, the landlord had filed another petition over an additional $82,353.72 of unpaid rent and fees since August. A third location of the bakery, at 601 Lexington Avenue, was evicted in October, the same month that food distributor Chefs’ Warehouse filed a summons over $172,354.25 in unpaid invoices. This January, Mah-Ze-Dahr closed its 3,000-square-foot location in Arlington, Virginia. (A Washington, D.C., location, its first outside New York, shuttered in 2023.)
Is this the end of Mah-Ze-Dahr? In an Instagram post, the brand announced the “closing” of the store and its “plan to return to the West Village soon.” Whatever happens, it’s not quite curtains yet: As of this morning, a counter location in the Brookfield Place mall was stocked with cream puffs and busy with customers.
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