There is paper covering the front windows of the space next to Colleen’s Cookies in Clayton (aka “the spot under the dot”). Come February of 2013, says cookie maven Colleen Thompson, the paper will be gone, and a new concept will be revealed: a café where dessert lovers can indulge in “cookie flights,” commuters can grab savory breakfast and lunch items, and the harried urban driver can use a prepaid plan in tandem with carhops to get meals to-go at a rapid-fire pace.
The new space will offer seating for 30, including a coffee counter that seats eight, said Thompson.
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Other planned features include:
-A full coffee bar featuring original coffee, tea, and juice drinks with flavor infusions of herbs, spices, and sugars.
-Cookie flights and pairings. “For instance, we may offer a cappuccino-chip cookie, a ‘Death by Chocolate’ cookie, and a chocolate-chunk cookie, paired with a Mexican chocolate-infused latte,” she said. (Pictured below is a Peanut Butter Cream, Housemade Oreo, and a Snickerdoodle)
-A selection of four different savory pot pies daily, in flavors like pear and sausage, beef and Guinness stout, broccoli and cheddar, roasted vegetables, or mac and cheese.
-A selection of two house-made soups a day.
-A single sandwich on the menu: grilled-cheese. “I don’t want to be just another sandwich place,” she said. “I’ll let other people handle sandwiches.”
-Possibly salads and flatbreads, too.
-A new opening time, 6:30 a.m., to serve breakfast.
-An expanded line of baked goods.
-An expansion of the “spin-farming” system, whereby Colleen’s pays patrons to use their backyards to grow “herbs like lavender, basil, chives, and thyme, and produce like tomatoes for the dishes served in the shop,” she said. Colleen’s already grows some of the ingredients they use in the cookies themselves.
-And a prepaid card to facilitate curbside delivery. Customers can call ahead with their order, pull up in front of the café, and a carhop will run it out to them. Colleen’s deducts the cost of the order from the card before the customer pulls up. “We are right next to a busy Metrolink stop,” said Thompson, “and I’m constantly watching people go back and forth really fast. The prepaid card should make for a super-fast transaction for people on foot or in cars.”
The planned expansion is “both exciting and frightening in this economy,” Thompson said.
Maybe so, but, to paraphrase Cookie Monster, it’s good enough for us.
≈Disclaimer:
Colleen’s Cookies’ extensive line-up of ice-cream sandwiches includes “The Byron,” consisting of chocolate-mint ice cream sandwiched between chocolate shortbread cookies, and named after yours truly.
