Who hasn’t at one time or another experienced late-night cravings for gooey chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven? Insomnia Cookies (1804 E. North Ave.) specializes in late-night delivery of freshly baked cookies. The bakery chain opened its first Milwaukee location in May 2016 and has since been satisfying the midnight snack attacks of college students and anyone who just loves cookies.
Insomnia Cookies was founded in a college dorm room in 2003 at the University of Pennsylvania by then student Seth Berkowitz. The business concept was born out of Berkowitz’s dislike of heavy meals late at night, a love of food delivery and the realization that by the time you get hungry at night, nothing is open.
“We decided to open in Milwaukee because the area seemed to have a strong sense of community, and we wanted to be able to deliver and serve the UW-Milwaukee students as well,” noted Joshua Johnson, marketing manager for Insomnia Cookies’ Philadelphia-based headquarters. Most of Insomnia Cookies’ locations are near college campuses, allowing it to best serve students needing a study break or hosting parties.
Insomnia Cookies offers nine varieties of traditional cookies: chocolate chunk, classic with M&Ms, sugar, double chocolate chunk, oatmeal raisin, white chocolate macadamia, snickerdoodle, double chocolate mint and peanut butter chip. Deluxe cookies include triple chocolate chunk, s’mores and chocolate peanut butter cup. Ice cream, ’wiches (cookie ice cream sandwiches), brownies and cookie cakes round out the menu.
At the store, cookies can be purchased individually or in packs of six or more, with large advance orders also possible. Since cookies just aren’t the same without milk, a cooler has different types of milk to wash down your cookies. For those who want warm cookies delivered to their homes or dorms, the minimum purchase is $6 with a $2.99 delivery fee. The delivery area is within two miles of the North Avenue retail location, and cookies can be delivered until 3 a.m.
The sweet aroma of Insomnia’s fresh-baked cookies takes you back to grandma’s kitchen. Those who enjoy crisp or crunchy cookies are out of luck, as Insomnia Cookies are the chewy kind and remain so even after they’ve cooled off. When eaten warm, the gooey chocolate chunks melts down your chin; be sure to have a napkin handy. The sugar cookie is not for one with a wimpy sweet tooth, and the peanut butter cookies pack rich peanut butter flavor through a combination of peanut butter dough and peanut butter chips.
It’s hard to choose just one flavor as the most popular,” said Johnson. “Guests seems to love mixing and matching our flavors into a dozen of their favorites, or ordering their favorite cookie a la mode with a scoop of ice cream. That said, we always have something up our sleeve and announce Limited Time offer products throughout the year, as well as seasonal offerings.”
In addition to the company’s website (insomniacookies.com), Johnson encourages people to follow their social media accounts for regular updates: facebook.com/insomniacookies, Twitter @InsomniaCookies, Instagram @insomniacookies, and Snapchat ‘cookiesVIP’.
Insomnia Cookies also has fundraising programs and cookie donations for organizations and causes.
