Boubouki's Greek Chocolate Chip Cookie | Lower East Side, New York

The Greeks are sweets masters, especially when it comes to multilayered, honeyed baked goods.

Now one Greek has gone after the chocolate chip cookie, offering an irresistible reconsideration of the American classic.

At Boubouki, a tiny takeout shop tucked behind the piles of vegetables at Batista's Grocery in the Essex Market, Rona Economou scents her cookies ($2) with orange zest, studs them with walnuts and imbues them with grape molasses. This sticky-sweet syrup, a beloved ingredient in many Greek desserts, gives the cookies a tenderness and subtle fruitiness that melds beautifully with molten chocolate.

The cookies aren't the only snack worth stopping for. Boubouki's spanakopita ($4) is exemplary, restrained in size, redolent with scallions and dill and sandwiched between thick layers of phyllo. The feta flatbread ($3), sharp with oregano, pairs deliciously with Economou's beet salad, another regular offering.

Of course, the Astoria-born former lawyer does baklava proud, too, but she sells it only on weekends. Her chocolate chip cookies, on the other hand, are available daily–provided, of course, you arrive before they sell out.

Boubouki, Essex Street Market, 120 Essex St. (between Rivington and Delancey sts); 718-344-4202 or bouboukinyc.com