Barbara O’Neil and Sue Maschinot. Photos by Brian Egeston.
The way the cookie cashes
by Brian Egeston
be@brianwrites.com
 The secret is in the sugar–caramelization, molasses characteristics, displacement during heat transfer. It’s the attention to the scientific detail of baking cookies that Barbara O’Neil and Sue Maschinot hope will keep their new business rolling in the dough. The Cookie Studio, the duo’s first business venture together, specializes in cookies from scratch.
O’Neil, an IT professional, left a position at a New York law firm and later a volunteer IT job at the Atlanta Day Shelter for Women and Children to play in flour and sugar all day. “My mom’s a really good baker and I’ve always been a really good baker and I always wanted to open up some kind of shop,” said O’Neil. “I just didn’t know what type of shop I wanted.” After reading an article about women in Los Angeles who quit their jobs and opened cookie shops, O’Neil decided to try her hand at living the dream.
Maschinot, a social worker for 15 years, said she got burned out with the bureaucracy associated with her position. She then became a personal chef but wanted the feeling of working with someone. A mutual friend introduced the two and now they’re cooking makers.
Maschinot and O’Neil cooked and sold out of a home kitchen for two years until they outgrew the space. O’Neil’s husband and son have sworn off chocolate chip cookies after years of serving as guinea pigs. The business partners used
craigslist.org and found a 1,100-square-foot area on E. College street in Decatur. The bright and airy space was formerly home to a caterer who frosted the windows so passersby could not see in. But The Cookie Studio cleared the windows and gave the area an organic feel with a few large vintage pieces placed strategically in the small waiting area. On this day, Bob Marley could be heard through speakers. Perhaps apropos for the risk takers, he sang the lyrics “These songs of freedom.”
The plans for success are steeped heavily in nurturing the product, according to the owners. “A lot of it has to do with constantly reworking the recipe,” said Maschinot. “The chocolate chip cookie took eight months to really tweak,” O’Neil added. “We found that there was one kind of sugar. If we switched sugars, things just didn’t come out right. We’re reworking a peanut butter recipe, trying different peanut butter. It’s always trying to figure out from a cost perspective, what can we do more inexpensively, but not have it affect the cookie [quality] at all.”
The staple cookies of the business are chocolate chip, sugar, ginger, toffee pecan, peanut butter and oatmeal; but several other varieties are put into the rotation including a breakfast cookie.
While the wide-open windows and gigantic cookie sign prompt people to stop in and grab a snack, O’Neil said the business goal is not to sell one or two cookies. Said O’Neil, “Our goal is to sell to corporate and to do much bigger projects through a lot of corporate gifts.” Maschinot added, “We’re happy to have the door open when we’re here. And we do have great coffee.”
The bigger projects are hopes that the business can give bigger donations. A portion of the proceeds from the cookies is donated to the Atlanta Day Shelter for Women and Children. The shelter is a source of inspiration for the two, especially O’Neil. A breast cancer survivor, she grew fond of the shelter’s director Ruth Schnatmeier, who also survived a bout with breast cancer. O’Neil said the director worked for 20 years building the shelter to its current prominence. “This is only going to help spread the word about the shelter so that more people are aware so that more people are interested in supporting it, but also just securing the future and making sure there’s enough money [for the shelter].”
Hope and optimism alone are not enough for a new venture. Successful business requires a foundation built on sound plans. Like a kid in a cookie shop, Maschinot is not worried.
“I feel like, I don’t know when, but I feel like [this business] is gonna fly,” she said.
For more information visit:
www.thecookiestudio.net
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