Business & Tech
Cookiebar: Pampering Your Sweet Tooth on Webster Street
"Growing up, we never had a place to hang out and the West End never had an ice cream shop," say the owners.
Step through the door of Cookiebar and you're engulfed in the aroma of freshly based cookies — chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, snickerdoodles...
Even for those of us whose moms didn't spend much time baking cookies, it's overwhelmingly nostalgic and homey. And very, very tempting.
Walk a few steps to the ice cream case, and the nostalgia keeps on coming. Is that really Thrifty Ice Cream? The same ice cream that sold for a dime a cone back in the '80s? Yes, it is, in some of the old flavors and some new ones.
Cookiebar, which opened at 1606 Webster St. in November, is a deliberate mix of mix of the nostalgic (wooden spoons), the contemporary (free WiFi, compostable ice cream cups) and industrial chic (cement flooring).
It's the creation of two Encinal High School alums, Rob Feng and John Ngu, who share a fondness for Thrifty Ice Cream and the Pacific Cookie Co., which supplies most of their cookie dough.
"Growing up, we never had a place to hang out and the West End never had an ice cream shop," said Feng. "This gives kids a safe place to hang out, do their homework."
Students doing homework aren't the only regulars. Feng said customers include mothers who stop by after shopping at the Farmers Market, firefighters from nearby Fire Station 2, an after-dinner crowd from Otaez and other local restaurants and even his former high school principal ("He said he's proud of me").
Cookiebar is perhaps best known for its ice cream-and-cookie sandwiches, but it also serves root beer and creamsicle floats, malts and milkshakes (made with six scoops of ice cream!).
Cookies are baked throughout the day and are served either warm or at room temperature — your choice. Cookiebar has occasional house-made specials like the super-indulgent Cookies & Cream, a chocolate chip cookie with Oreos inside.
Ice cream flavors rotate, with 16 available at any one time. Another house special is a pineapple-coconut ice cream, recently added at the suggestion of customers.
Cookiebar, 1606 Webster St., Alameda, (510) 521-1544, https://www.facebook.com/cookiebarshop. Open noon-9 p.m.
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