It was a sweet surprise to walk into
MoDiv at 40 Monroe Center Ave. during
ArtPrize last week and come face to face with tables of glass containers filled with decadent
Monica's Gourmet Cookies. The queue of enthusiastic customers was long, but my friend and I discovered we needed every minute in line to decide which of the 26 varieties we were going to try.
Monica Mitidieri began selling her cookies online in 2001, during her years as a caterer, and the success of the cookies soon propelled her into selling them and leaving the meal catering behind. After striking a deal to supply Spartan stores with the rich, flavorful delicacies, the business took off.
She created a bakehouse kitchen and café at 3668 29th St. and two weeks ago opened a small store in MoDiv (Shops at Monroe Center and Division) -- just in time to debut her specialty Grand Rapids cookie during ArtPrize: The Grand…Rapidly Disappearing cookie, chock full of rich dark chocolate, pretzels, and dark cocoa almonds, and topped with dark chocolate.
Monica describes the tasty morsels as "a mounded type of cookie, soft, dense -- they're little but they're mighty. Once a customer eats one, they get why they're $1.75 each."
My friend and I settled on four cookies: Monica's Best Signature Chocolate Chip (not your grandma's recipe!), Red Velvet Cake (with cream cheese frosting), Maple Walnut (with black walnut flavoring and Michigan maple syrup), and Cinnamon Sugar. After "sampling" each, (we ate every crumb), we voted on our favorites. The chocolate chip and the maple walnut tied for first place.
The cookies are baked fresh daily at the bakehouse, where Monica also offers cinnamon rolls, quiche, breakfast scones (think bacon), and soup. The focus at MoDiv, though, is cookies. Monica says the shop sold 800 of the comfort bombs on Saturday alone.
"I'm thrilled to be out in the public," she says, adding that she feels like the drummer who finally came out from behind the band to take the mic. "There's so much more to my business than just what's here at MoDiv. The energy here is incredible right now."
You can find Monica's Gourmet Cookies at Spartan Stores,
online, or at MoDiv from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. during ArtPrize, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. the rest of the year.
Writer: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor
Images courtesy of Monica's Gourmet Cookies
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