Crumbl Cookies, not your typical cookie-cutter cookie store, opens Friday at Ridge

Co-owner Anna Stice, left, holds the company standard bearer, a warm milk chocolate chocolate chip cookie as workers behind the counter prepare ingredients for Friday's opening. (Rochester Voice photos)

ROCHESTER - Imagine being out on a date on a Friday or Saturday night, and after listening to an evening of music at your favorite club, you turn to your date and say, "How bout a nightcap?"
"I think we've had enough already," they reply.
Then you explain you weren't thinking about another cocktail, but an 11th-hour run to Crumbl Cookies for one of their gourmet "warm" cookies.
Who knows? A trip to Crumbl Cookies at The Ridge could become a date staple in the Lilac City beginning on Friday when they open their doors for the first time at 8 a.m. sharp.
Crumbl Cookies co-owner Anna Stice said the Portsmouth store she owns with her husband, Ben, often sees heavy traffic late Friday and Saturday nights, when they're open till midnight.
She expects the same at their Rochester location.
One things for sure. Crumbl Cookies isn't your typical cookie-cutter cookie store. It began in Logan, Utah, in 2017, and has already grown to 700 stores nationwide.
Stice said many of their recipes were developed over time by giving free samples to university students and getting immediate feedback on what they liked and didn't like.
Another unique aspect of their business model is that they make everything on site, fresh, with fresh ingredients.
"You can see our mixers, you can see what we're doing," Stice said as she watched a dozen or so bakers working feverishly behind her to get everything ready for Friday's opening. "And we have strict rules, too, like a cookie can't be in the warmer longer than a certain time.
A third unique aspect of Crumbl Cookies is their revolving menu.
Each week five different cookies are presented for the public to enjoy along with the always-available Crumbl Cookies flagship offering, the warm milk chocolate chocolate chip cookie.
"It's made with oversized milk chocolate chips," Stice said as she showed one off on Tuesday.
This writer asked if we could take it home to sample.
"Oh no," she said with a sympathetic smile. "This one has been in the warmer too long. I can't let it go."
Friday's opening will also include a Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting at 10 a.m.
Crumbl Cookies is located at The Ridge Marketplace, 150 Marketplace Blvd., Unit 11.

Their hours are 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday.

To learn more about Crumbl Cookies click here.