Nothing comes close to the comfort offered by a fresh chocolate chip cookie. What started by Ruth Wakefield at the Toll House Restaurant in 1930s Massachusetts has since spread across the country, leaving its mark on sweet treat lovers in Gainesville.
Many local shops, restaurants and bakeries have their own recipe for chocolate chip cookies, creating vastly different results.
Here’s five Gainesville stores offering chocolate chip cookies, judged by their size, thickness, taste, texture and price.
Afternoon
The casual brunch restaurant, located at 231 NW 10th Ave, has a to-go window where customers can order its nearly 4-inch-wide housemade chocolate chip cookies for just $2.75 each.
The Afternoon cookie is easily the thickest out of the five cookies offered. Its marbled golden brown and chocolate exterior is adorned with what appears to be a heavy amount of salt. However, the cookie does not taste nearly as salty as one would expect. The cookie has a delicate chocolate flavor that’s not overpowering.
The to-go window is open Thursday through Tuesday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Brother Cookie
Brother Cookie, located at 401 NE 23rd Ave, advertises its cookies in two sizes: “Giant,” which is 4 to 5 inches wide, and “Mini-Giant,” which is half the size, according to the Brother Cookie website. The “Giant” chocolate chip cookie sampled for this list was actually almost 6 inches. The “Giants” sell for $4, and the “Mini-Giants” sell for $2.25.
These cookies master the art of having crispy edges while still managing to be soft in the center. It’s on the thinner side, but the chocolate is well distributed and present in each bite.
“I’ve become more of a cookie person recently, and I would definitely recommend this place! The cookies are very buttery, gooey, and perfectly sweet,” read a Google review from Chad Jones.
Brother Cookie is open Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday from noon to 8 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday from noon to 11 p.m.
Uppercrust
Located at 4118 NW 16th Blvd, its chocolate chip cookie is the priciest, offered at $4.95, and is about 5 and a half inches wide. Uppercrust usually sells 24 to 36 chocolate chip cookies a day, Trip Davis, the general manager, said.
This cookie is very large and thin with a golden brown crust. It’s a little chewy, a little crispy and its moistness makes it a little soft. The chocolate is closer to chunks than chips. Because of the thinness, the chocolate takes up a lot of space.
“They’re salty,” Davis said. “They’re sweet. The brown butter gives them sort of a nuttiness. They’re soft, and there’s a lot of chocolate.”
The bakery is open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.
Midnight Cookies
Midnight Cookies is the only shop on this list that bakes each cookie to order. A chocolate chip cookie costs $2.29 and is about 4 inches wide.
This cookie is simple and classic. It has a quiet crunch where the outside is slightly crisp and the inside is soft. The exterior is closer to pale than golden brown. This was the only cookie on the list actively served warm, which is what sets it apart from others. The cookies are also packaged in pizza boxes.
“It’s a damn good cookie,” Gianluca Medigovic, a UF biology senior, said.
Midnight Cookies is located at 3345 SW 34th St and is open 6 p.m. to midnight Wednesdays and Thursdays; 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 4:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Sundays.
BakerBaker
BakerBaker, a bakery at 407 SW 4th Ave in 4th Ave Food Park, offers vegan chocolate chip cookies. Even though the bakery is only open from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. Tuesday to Saturday, the shop regularly sells out of its cookies before closing, the owner of the bakery, Amanda Bowers, said.
BakerBaker had the cheapest cookie in this list, coming in with the low price of $1.50 and sitting around 3 inches wide.
“We make everything from scratch with good ingredients, and we don’t charge a premium for that,” Bowers said.
BakerBaker’s chocolate chip cookie is decorated with large chocolate chips and has an attractive golden brown crust. It’s chewy and is more salty than sweet. Although the chocolate is not well-distributed, the bites containing chocolate are exceptional.
Contact Corey Fiske at cfiske@alligator.org. Follow him on X @coreyfiske7.
