E-mail
Print
AT A GLANCE
What: Hot Box Cookies
Where: 808B E. Broadway
Hours: Hot Box Cookies is open from 4 p.m.-1 a.m. Monday through Wednesday; 4 p.m.-2:30 a.m. Thursday and Friday; noon-2 a.m. Saturday; and noon to 1 a.m. Sunday.
More info: For a full description of prices, products, and catering information or to order a batch, visit Hot Box’s website at www.hotboxcookies.com — Web site not working. Or call 573-777-8269.
- David Melnick takes customer Mitchell Frechmann's order at Hot Box Cookies. Friday was the grand opening of the cookie store, and Melnick is one of the three MU juniors who started the business. A customer can order pre-made cookies or have custom ones cooked and delivered in pizza boxes.
- Adam Hendin prepares a cookie for the oven by combining peanut butter cookie dough and several ingredients at Hot Box Cookies on Friday.
COLUMBIA — Remember that smell of freshly baked cookies drawing you straight to the oven?
Friday afternoon, people were likewise drawn to Hot Box Cookies, a new business next to Cool Stuff at 808B E. Broadway.
The bakery sells cookies to-go for about $1 apiece or delivers them in signature pizza boxes. It officially begins delivering its fresh cookies Monday.
“We’ve been waiting for this to open for months,” said Brittany Carney, one of the first customers to buy a cookie Friday.
Some customers waited outside for the opening; others were enticed inside by the aroma escaping the store’s open door.
“Aww, that smells so good,” said Dan Waxman, awaiting the cookies with friend Ed Turner. Both ordered custom-made cookies — plain sugar cookies with white chocolate chips for Waxman; peanut butter dough with Reese's Pieces for Turner. For custom cookies, the wait is 8 to 10 minutes.
With four types of dough — peanut butter, oatmeal, sugar and chocolate — and 19 different toppings, the shop has more than 10,000 custom combinations, said co-owner Corey Rimmel.
The bakery also offers handmade smoothies blended from four different fruits.
This venture was the brainchild of Rimmel, Adam Hendin and David Melnick, after they saw a similar business at Indiana University. The three MU juniors came up with the idea through a "collaborative effort," Hendin said. The students were helped financially by their parents.
“There are a lot of East Coast shops that are somewhat like ours, but we are trying to expand on the idea,” Rimmel said. “The unique idea about this is that the cookies are custom-made and delivered hot."
Meinick and Rimmel, a pair of accounting majors, and Hendin, an atmospheric science major, said they have a plan in case their business takes off. Rimmel will be the first to drop out of college.
"I'm second," Meinick added, and "I'm third," Hendin said.
As majority owner, Rimmel would be willing to stay in Columbia.
“My ultimate goal is to expand this all over the country,” he said. "I’d like to expand it to any college campus in the country."
Comments