Cookie Dough

Cookie dough dessert shop sugars up Dallas' sweetest neighborhood

Cookie dough trend is rising in Dallas.

Photo courtesy of Cookie Doh

Dallas has welcomed a mindbending array of weird cool dessert concepts in the past year and now the moment has arrived for cookie dough. A new shop will open this spring in Deep Ellum called Cookie Doh, serving up desserts that revolve around cookie dough.

Lest you think there are not many cookie dough desserts, we are here to list some of the options. There is cookie dough by the scoop. Cookie dough served like ice cream in an ice cream cone. Cookie dough milkshakes. Cookie dough ice cream sandwiches.

Cookie Doh will open at 2646 Elm St., right next to Chills 360, the rolled ice cream spot, and is in fact from Usman and Javeria Babar, the husband-and-wife team who own Chills 360.

"We saw cookie dough places in New York, where people were waiting for hours to try it, and thought it was a good idea," Usman says. "With Javi's pastry chef skills, we knew we could pull it off."

They'll offer at least a dozen flavors such as Nutella, chocolate chip, and Oreo.

"The routine is similar to Chills in that we start with a dough and mix in the ingredients you pick," he says. "If you get it in a cup or a cone, we can also add toppings like fresh strawberries."

There's also a cool specialty item in which balls of cookie dough are encased in a milk chocolate shell, like cookie dough bonbons.

A few of the doughs will include ultra-pasteurized eggs, but regardless of recipe, they will all be served chilled. The dough can also be bought in large quantities, in a tub, to be taken home and baked off into cookies.

Already home to a doughnut shop, candy shop, milkshake shop, and of course Chills 360 right next door, Deep Ellum seemed like the ideal location, Babar says.

"People are always walking around, and we've seen at Chills 360 that there's a big audience for desserts," he says.

ice-cream trends deep-ellum desserts openings

Coffee News

East Dallas coffee shop Killer Joe crackles with sharp New York style

Killer Joe

Killer Joe Coffee

A hip new coffee shop is energizing a busy corner in East Dallas: Called Killer Joe, it's a new shop at 108 N. Fitzhugh Ave. right on the northeast corner of Columbia Avenue, next to (and in the same building as) Pupusas To Go.

Killer Joe is from Christine Sweet and Christian Napolitano, who moved from New York to Dallas in 2022 in search of entrepreneurial opportunity.

"We had been wanting to open up a business in New York for a long time," Christine says. “After the pandemic, it was really hard doing business there. We were looking for a good place to move that offered an opportunity to open our business."

Christine previously worked in travel/destination marketing, living in different places around the world. Christian was in hospitality, having worked in high-end restaurants in Manhattan, most recently at Bond Street Sushi in Soho.

Their goal: to bring a little New York culture to Dallas.

“We are more than a coffee shop — we're a place for foodies and musicophiles, we are really into music and rock & roll. Our shop is not a sleepy, quiet coffee shop," Christine says.

They serve notice of their intentions on the exterior with a quirky, personal mural by Anthony Z. Padilla, rendered in taxicab yellow, with elegant line drawings of the Statue of Liberty and highway-style signs that say "Now leaving New York" and "Welcome to Texas."

The interior is casual-chic, with pale wood furniture and an original cement floor that still sports intentional patches of old paint. The walls have a mix of B&W vintage photos and the occasional cowboy hat. The space was for many years a closed-in bar called Los Dos Reales; but now, the building boasts expansive windows that look out on Fitzhugh and create a bright and sunny space.

For their coffee program, they use organic espresso beans and make their drinks in an Italian Sanremo machine. They serve all the classics plus signature drinks such as French Toast Latte, Sea Salt Caramel de Leche, and Caliente Mocha with a hint of cayenne pepper.

Seasonal drinks include a pistachio caramel matcha latte — featuring toasted pistachios like a baklava, but balanced by the earthiness of the matcha. Other specialty drinks include rose water matcha, orange blossom matcha spritz, and cucumber lemonade.

Panini at Killer JoeKiller Joe

They also serve food, including breakfast all day: steak & eggs, avocado toast, and bagels with plain, scallion or vegan cream cheese. The "Spaghetti Western" is a twist on the traditional ham & cheese sandwich with spicy capicola, roasted tomato, Calabrian pepper sauce, and chimichurri on toasted ciabatta.

Bread is from Empire Baking Company and the bagels are from Shug's.

At lunch, they serve an umami tuna melt; a "K-Pop Cuban" with ham and cheese, plus kimchi pickles and wasabi mayo; and The Texican, with soyrizo spicy sausage, cheddar roasted poblano peppers, tomato, and avocado.

Reeves Family Farm in Princeton provides fruits and vegetables, and DiveDWN brings their microgreens. Pastries are baked in house and sauces such as black olive pesto and Killer chipotle sauce are made from scratch.

“We are trying to blend our edgy New York style with a Southern Texas flair," Christine says.

They're open daily from 7am-3 pm, with a late-hour program every second Saturday featuring live DJs; people gather inside and outside the shop for music, food, and drinks.

"This community is just so great, very eclectic, and has really embraced our style," Christine says. In fact, a few customers had a tattoo made at neighbor Franklins Tattoo and Supply with the coffee shop's skull logo.

"I had to follow and get one done too," she says.

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