BY SAM VISE FOR THE OBSERVER
AUBURN — There’s a new aroma coming to downtown Auburn, and it’s a sweet one. Cookie Fix, the popular Birmingham-based bakery, is set to open its doors this fall, promising to become the city’s newest sweet spot. With a menu of warm, gooey cookies and a following for its famous frozen dough, the new bakery will bring a fresh batch of treats to the heart of Auburn.
With Auburn roots and a shared love for connecting with the community, the owners of Wrapsody are bringing this concept to downtown. Auburn University alumni Christie and Reel Howell, along with Christie’s brother, Dustin Blomeyer, are taking their passion for thoughtful gifts and turning it into something sweet and decadent. The team is aiming to open the new Cookie Fix location in late October at 116 N. College St., the former site of Kung Fu Tea.
Reel said he and his wife have always believed that a Cookie Fix would be a great fit for downtown Auburn, and when they learned the space next to their other business was available, they knew exactly what to do. With the desire for a complementary tenant and Blomeyer’s background in food service, the venture seemed like the perfect opportunity.
“Most of my career has been involved with food in some way, and so it’s kind of in my blood,” Blomeyer said. “I moved my family back to Auburn six years ago. It’s just a great family oriented community, and I felt like there could be a number of needs to provide. This just ended up lining up and being the right time for me and my family, and also Reel and Christie’s business. So, it seems to be all around a good fit.”
With all three owners being Auburn University graduates, their mission to serve the community runs deeper than just business.
“It feels really good to give back,” Blomeyer said. “It’s great to be around Auburn and just to provide more amenities around the university. There’s a growing population here, there are a lot of young families, not only seasonal but year-round. We just want to provide another thing for people to enjoy, and I hope that we do that for the city.”
Cookie Fix originally started in Homewood, Alabama, and has expanded across the state, with one location also in Tennessee and one to open in Florida soon.
Cookie Fix offers dozens of unique cookie variations and over 100 flavors that rotate on the menu. The brand’s signature is its texture, which is the result of specific recipes and a unique baking process. This process yields a tall cookie that is crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside, made with gourmet ingredients.
Reel said his favorite cookie is the classic chocolate chip, while Blomeyer said he enjoys the presidential cookie (semi-sweet chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips and sea salt).
They not only offer freshly baked cookies, but frozen dough to-go, dry cookie mix, cookie cakes, cookie bars and catering trays.
“[It’s a] uniquely made product,” Blomeyer said. “I can remember the first time I had Cookie Fix. The saltiness, so it’s not overly sweet, and the chocolate chips and the size and texture. You got the gooey inside and the crispy outside. So, kind of the best of both worlds there. It’s great that our concept allows us to adapt to Auburn, from the team’s colors to becoming a part of the community.”
Blomeyer acknowledged that there’s a place for all dessert businesses, but he feels Cookie Fix stands out because of its deep connection to the Auburn community.
“I think a lot of concepts lose that community feel when they franchise in multiple locations all around the country,” he said. “So, you know, I live here. My family lives here. We always want to be a part of Auburn.”
Customer service is very important to Blomeyer and the Howells, and they hope to engage with the community and AU students in particular, whether that be catering university events or offering Auburn-specific treats.
“You have a lot of franchise concepts, and a lot of them are not based in the Southeast, the corporate franchise isn’t,” Reel said. “And secondly, sometimes you have large operators that may be franchisees of 10 different concepts. Cookie Fix corporate … They’ve been very strategic about picking their franchise partners because they don’t want the customer service and the quality to be diluted. They don’t want to risk that by growing too fast or with somebody who may not be present within their business.”
Currently, the store plans to operate based on corporate hours, which are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday. They are considering staying open later on game days and being open on Sundays following home game days.
The menu is standard among all Cookie Fix locations, but Blomeyer and the Howells have a few ideas for incorporating the Auburn spirit into the new location.
“I think the plan is to have some specialty, whether it be a flavor or decor — sprinkles or icing colors or things like that — to really bring in the Auburn game day spirit,” Reel said.
Blomeyer said that he foresees the team expanding the menu a bit, and it could possibly include an enhanced selection of beverages and cookie sandwiches.
For Blomeyer and the Howells, the hardest part of the journey has been the building process. Reel said the old downtown building is challenging to renovate, but this location means everything to them.
“[Our mission] is to provide a place for friends and family, college students, alumni and all visitors of the city to take another little piece of goodness and a sweet treat as they enjoy Auburn and everything it has to offer,” Blomeyer said.
With a shared passion for their community and a family-run approach to business, the owners are confident that Cookie Fix will be more than just a new sweet spot, but a popular place for locals and students alike to relax and bask in the Auburn experience.
Cookie Fix Auburn is actively hiring. For more information or to apply, visit cookiefix.com/auburn or find them on Facebook.
