Staff photo.
The Homewood-based company Cookie Fix announced plans for a second store location in The Heights Village in Cahaba Heights in mid-September with plans to be open to the public in November.
A popular Homewood bakery will be making its way to Heights Village this month.
Cookie Fix is a small-batch cookie shop that Amy Jason started in Homewood a few years ago. Since opening doors, Cookie Fix has been a sweet success — lines often form out the door as people wait for the crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside cookies.
“We make them fresh all day, so there’s always a good chance you’ll get a warm cookie,” Jason said. “If we baked everything at 5 a.m. and just let it sit, that would be easier for us, but it’s just not the same. A fresh cookie makes all the difference in the world.”
People also love the variety of options, Jason said. Every day has a new menu, which is written in chalk on a board outside the shop and is also posted to social media. Fan favorites like chocolate chip frequent the list while other flavors might only last one week.
“We’re trying two new cookies a week and calling them LTO, limited time only,” she said. “One week was Italian Cream Cake, and we put buttercream icing on it. I took one bite and thought, this could be the best cookie I’ve ever eaten.”
She gets her creativity everywhere, she said, from the candy bar aisle, the cereal aisle, social media, ice cream flavors, cook books and more.
“Sometimes I’m just standing in my pantry, and I’ll see some kettle corn popcorn, and then I’ll see some toffee and some white chocolate chips,” she said. “And then I’ll wonder, ‘Huh, I wonder if those three taste good together.’ I’ll stand there and snack on something, and more ideas come to me.”
Jason started thinking about a second location in January, but the COVID-19 pandemic slowed things down, she said.
“We were hesitant in March to move forward,” she said. “We didn’t know what was going to happen from day-to-day — if we were going to be able to stay open, if business was going too slow to a screeching halt, if the world was going to be forced inside … we just didn’t know.”
It was worth the wait though, she said. She got the ball rolling again in June when things began opening back up. Throughout the pandemic, Cookie Fix in Homewood stayed busy. Jason said she has been very blessed.
“That definitely made it an easier decision to go, yeah, we’re going to do this. We’re going to have faith. We’re going to trust the Lord — he’s gotten us this far.”
The Heights Village space will be about 50% larger than her Homewood space. There will be four window barstool seats available, and Jason said she is excited about the shared outdoor patio seating, which has about 80 seats available.
She also plans to use this opportunity to introduce a new menu option to Vestavia customers: skillet cookies. Currently in the Homewood location, she sells the cookie dough and skillets with instructions on how to make skillet cookies, which is made by cooking a cookie dough ball on a skillet for about 12 minutes and topping it with ice cream and a drizzle of chocolate ganache sauce. Because the Vestavia location offers outdoor seating, customers will be able to enjoy the cookie skillet and then return the skillet back to Jason.
Skillet cookies won’t be available immediately — she said she will wait a month or two to introduce the new menu item until after she gets settled in.
Jason plans to open the Heights Village Cookie Fix by mid-November, she said. It will be located at 3152 Heights Village, Vestavia Hills. Visit cookiefix.com for more information.