As a natural evolution of the customized doughnuts shops like VooDoo Donuts or Duck Donuts and breakfast cereal cafes like Milk Bar, Cookie Connect offers unique concoctions of sweet ingredients in cookie form. Offering a rotating menu of 16 customized cookies ($4 apiece; 4 for $14; and 8 for $24) and made-to-order soft-serve ice cream parfaits with combinations of traditional sundae toppings, flavored syrups, and breakfast cereals -- the menu is definitely kid-friendly and carb-heavy.
I had read a few positive reviews of Cookie Connect on a local Facebook group, so I suggested to my family that we should stop in for dessert after dinner elsewhere in Morristown on a recent weekend evening. When we walked in, there was a small queue of people waiting in line. Occasionally, someone on the staff would pop out from the kitchen with a box of cookies and shout out a name. In some cases, a customer recognized their name and stepped forward to receive their magic box of cookies and, in other cases, no one claimed the order and the unclaimed box was left on the counter. There was no one at the counter taking customers' orders and no clear explanation to customers how to place an order. Eventually, one of the other customers standing in line silently pointed us towards the row of iPads along the wall. On the evening in question, two of the three iPads for on-site ordering were not functional. We used the lone functioning tablet to place an order for four cookies, then joined the line of sullen customers waiting on tasty baked goods. We received our four cookies within 10-15 minutes in the one of the aforementioned white boxes. There's no place in the store to sit down to enjoy the cookies, so the six of us hovered in the front of the store to partake in the highly-anticipated baked goodness. With all of the inconvenience associated with placing a walk-in order, it seems to me that Cookie Connect is trying to actively discourage the practice. If that's the case -- then they should do a better job communicating that to their customers.
After all that, expectations were high.
Unfortunately.. All four of us who indulged remarked that their cookies were underwhelming (and seemed undercooked). Two of the group literally put their cookies back in the box after taking a bite, saying the experience wasn't worth the calories. How bad does a cookie have to be for someone to take a bite and throw it away?
As others have said, Cookie Connect is definitely experiencing some start-up issues. Hopefully, they're able to turn the corner and improve their processes and their products. read more