Cindy Lou's Cookies Opens Shop in Little River With Plans for a Cookie Café

Inside the kitchen at Cindy Lou's. Courtesy of Cindy Kruse

Audio By Carbonatix

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Miami's first artisanal cookie shop opened its first wholesale location today in Little River (7320 NE Second Ave., Miami). Though there are no tables or seats inside Cindy Lou's Cookies, the storefront welcomes walk-in customers.

"It feels like I'm in a dream," owner Cindy Kruse says. "After I got all the equipment set up a few days ago, I sat on the floor and cried in amazement."

Though Kruse's wholesale location just opened, she's already planning a cookie café nearby in Little River too.

"I'm hoping that within a year, it will happen," she says. "This would be a place where people can get the full experience of sitting down with a cookie and a cup of coffee instead of just stopping in."

Kruse, a local baker and former pastry chef at the Fontainebleau, Barton G., and Gigi, left the corporate world four years ago, swapping high-tech kitchens for a small oven stashed inside her garage. With more than 25 years of experience, Kruse developed a budding wholesale business outsourcing to popular spots such as Panther Coffee, Jimmy'z Kitchen, and Vice City Bean.

click to enlarge

Inside the kitchen at Cindy Lou's.

Courtesy of Cindy Kruse

In November 2016, she announced the opening of her Little River location and launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the buildout. She raised $30,000 and spent the past six months hurdling construction and permitting obstacles.

"It's all a big blur now," she says. "So much hard work and frustration went into it. Dealing with Miami officials took a long time for such a small space, but it was all worth it."

In her new storefront, she'll bake nearly 30 cookie varieties, including Oreo crunch, cheesecake, lemon cloud, and salted double chocolate filled with Nutella. Every treat is molded and decorated by hand, and all toppings and fillings are made in-house too. Each cookie, weighing about five ounces, sells for $3.50.

Though her Little River location has no official menu, customers can simply choose from the day's offerings.

"I feel so lucky to have a product that people really respond to," she says. "Cookies have always made me happy, but I never realized how happy they make other people too."

Cindy Lou's Cookies
7320 NE Second Ave., Miami; 786-505-2253; cindylouscookies.com.