Fifteen years ago — long before Germantown was the hot dining and retail destination it is today — Christie Cookie Co. opened up a cookie factory to support the company's rapid expansion. The company started in a small storefront on Church Street in the mid-1980s and moved its headquarters from MetroCenter to its current location on Third Avenue near Jefferson Street in April 2000.
At the time, that part of Germantown was still mostly industrial and largely vacant. Nearby was an abandoned meatpacking warehouse, the city's old stockyards, a furniture company. The only restaurants were The Mad Platter and Monell's. The Stock-Yard was nearby too, across Jefferson Street.
But re-development was already underway. Soon Germantown Café and City House would open, and the neighborhood would become one of the hottest in Nashville for commercial and residential growth. That surge in development over the past decade has brought changes to Germantown.
"When we first moved in, we wanted to feel good about the neighborhood, so we put landscaping around the building, including 15 holly bushes," recalls Fleming Wilt, president of Christie Cookie. "We came in one morning soon after, and there were 15 holes in the ground." Some enterprising thief had stolen every shrub.
"Up until about three years ago, we locked the front door and buzzed people into the lobby," Wilt says.
Now, however, the company not only leaves the front door unlocked during business hours but has created a retail space to take advantage of the increasing number of visitors to the bakery, including both tourists and residents.
"When we located our headquarters in Germantown 15 years ago, we never imagined the culinary, artistic and family-friendly neighborhood it would become," Wilt says. "We are thrilled to be a part of it."
Easily accessible from the Cumberland River Greenway — and just a stone's throw from the Sounds' new First Tennessee Park, as well as dozens of popular restaurants and condominiums — Christie Cookie is working to increase its profile in the neighborhood and in Nashville's culinary scene. For years, it's been a well-kept secret among area residents that you could stop in for a freshly baked cookie during the company's business hours. The cheerful folks at the front desk were always happy to sell their cookies (and offer free samples as well). Now, the company has decided to promote its freshly made baked goods while offering more than just cookies and brownies.
Last year, Christie Cookie initiated a huge rebranding effort, as well as additions to its strategic plan that included expanding and promoting retail operations. These had previously been left to founder Christie Hauck when the retail and wholesale businesses split. The wholesale business previously extended its product line to include brownies, chocolates, and even coffee to complement the popular cookies.
With chef Tony Schmidt — who came to Christie Cookie from US Foods and is a Culinary Institute of America graduate — now on board to develop new recipes, the company is expanding further to include new cookie flavors (butter pecan, peanut butter chocolate chip) as well as muffins in the bakery store. You can also purchase tubs of frozen cookie dough and Christie Cookie merchandise as well as gift tins. Christie Cookies make great gifts that will magically turn friends into best friends. I know this from experience.
What makes Christie Cookies so good — and sets them apart from other large-scale bakeries — is evident when you read about the ingredients. The list is what you'd use at home to make your own cookies, brownies and muffins. Flour, sugar, eggs and butter are the cornerstones of each recipe; no artificial ingredients or preservatives leave you with a bad aftertaste in your mouth. The measurement of ingredients and the operation of the giant mixers and ovens are all overseen by real humans to make sure every batch is just right, too.
The cookies are so good that DoubleTree Hotels contracted with the company to exclusively make their famous cookie back in 1995. The DoubleTree Cookies, which are chocolate chip cookies with rolled oats and walnuts added (as well as a few other secret ingredients), are my favorite of all the cookies. They have a chewy, almost cake-like texture that is immensely satisfying. The oatmeal raisin cookie makes a good run for the top spot, though, with its inclusion of real bits of Heath candy bars. I've been sending tins of Christie Cookies as gifts to grateful recipients since learning about the company from friends who worked for DoubleTree's corporate office in Memphis more than a decade ago.
To celebrate the bakery store's grand opening, Christie Cookie is promoting a different special each day from May 11 through May 15 — National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day — when the bakery will be giving away free chocolate chip cookies all day. Stop in any time between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. for your free cookie. And take an assortment of other cookies, brownies and muffins with you for later. You'll want more — and Christie Cookie Co. isn't open on weekends.
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