The Stern Opportunity

Issue date: 10/11/05 Section: Reviews

Nestled on the lovely yet unassuming tree-lined road called Commerce Street, just off of 7th Avenue in the West Village, Milk and Cookies Bakery beckons passers-by who are fortunate enough to stumble by its threshold. Once inside, customers are greeted by the delectable aroma of fresh-baked cookies, in a warm and cozy environment that makes you feel like you are sitting down for milk and cookies in your Grandma's kitchen. With intimate seating for an estimated 12 people on quaint wooden chairs and benches that are covered with red and white plaid fabric, the bakery displays its cookie specials on chalkboards as treats are pulled from the oven on hot trays right in front of your eyes.

Milk and Cookies Bakery, the brainchild of husband-and-wife team Jennifer and Marc Limotte, opened in April of this year. Recognizing that cookies were often an after-thought in other New York bakeries, Jennifer and Marc decided that a cookie-focused bakery would speak to cookie-lovers like Marc who considers the treats to be his favorite dessert. During a recent visit to Milk and Cookies, the Oppy sat down with Jennifer to understand more about this inventive entrepreneurial endeavor.

Jennifer, I learned, brings with her a degree in Accounting and an impressive resume from the software industry, having worked at EDS and having tried her luck at a dot-com company. Feeling frustrated with corporate America, Jennifer was inspired to open her own business where she would have direct control over the company's destiny with her creative ideas and business acumen.

Earlier this year, Milk and Cookies Bakery was highlighted on the Today Show as well as the Food Network and the Fox Morning Show. In addition, Jennifer and Marc are pursuing a partnership with the W Hotel chain, where cookies baked with Milk and Cookies Bakery dough will be served at domestic hotel locations to promote the W's "warmth of cool" campaign. Milk and Cookies is also in the process of formalizing its hot cookie delivery service, which will bring fresh-baked cookies to the apartments of Manhattan-ites within the delivery area of the West Side Highway through 4th Avenue, between Houston and 14th Street.

Indeed, Milk and Cookies is prepared to delight its customers. In fact, Jennifer noted, the bakery has had the experience of serving the cookie needs of a royal Saudi princess. As Jennifer recalls, "I received a call at the bakery one day from someone telling me that a princess would be arriving shortly and that I should be prepared to treat her nicely. I thought at first that it was a prank call, but sure enough, a limo soon pulled up to the bakery and in walked a Saudi princess. She told me that her husband was celebrating his 27th birthday and that she wanted to surprise him with a unique cookie cake." So, how did Milk and Cookies meet the expectations of royalty? The bakery produced an ice-cream sandwich cookie cake shaped like a SONY portable play station, which Jennifer personally delivered to the royal couple at their New York City dinner restaurant of choice.

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