I
ts most popular cookie is the classic
Chocolate Chunk, yet Detroit Cookie
Co. is also known for Banana Pudding,
Raspberry Cheesecake Oreo and B-Special
cookies, the latter of which founder and
owner Lauren Roumayah calls “an upgraded
snickerdoodle.
”
Every day, Detroit Cookie Co., which has
locations in Ferndale, Ann Arbor and Grand
Rapids, serves up anywhere from 2,000-5,000
baked-fresh cookies.
The work begins at 6 a.m., when bakers
first arrive. “We treat it as if we are buyers
preparing for the next season, except we do it
every single night,
” Roumayah explains.
For the 29-year-old business owner, who
owns and operates Detroit Cookie Co. along-
side her husband and business partner, Tony
Sevy, baking cookies is second nature.
Roumayah’s first memory of baking is at
the young age of 4, when she’
d bake cookies
with her mother, Paula. “My mom was the
cookie baker in the family,
” she recalls. “It
went back generations. Around the holidays,
we’
d make sugar cookies.
”
A RETURN TO COOKIES
Today, those recipes and memories inspire
Detroit Cookie Co. As she grew up,
Roumayah continued to bake. Her friends,
and even friends of her friends, would beg
her to make cookies. “I would bake copious
amounts of sweets,
” she remembers.
While dating, Roumayah’s now-husband,
Tony, always encouraged her to continue
baking. Although she studied fashion mer-
chandising at Wayne State University and
went on to work in the field, Roumayah
knew her true passion was with making
cookies.
“It was not making me happy at all,
” she
recalls of her original career path. One day,
her husband asked her, “What do you want
to do, in a perfect world?” Roumayah’s
response was instant: “I just want to make
cookies,
” she said.
Tony was all for the idea. In 2014, the pair
began planning the idea for Detroit Cookie
Co. By 2015, it was officially established. At
the time, Roumayah continued to work her
9-5 job as the business plan came together.
“We were making cookies, but now we had
to do it legally because you can’t just make
cookies in your house,
” she says.
FINDING A HOME
Therefore, Roumayah began to seek out a
permanent location for Detroit Cookie Co.
First, she turned to the Culinary Studio,
“My goal was to be a neighborhood joint,” says
Lauren Roumayah of Detroit Cookie Co.
40 | APRIL 21 • 2022
Inspired by
Generations
ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
NEXT DOR
VOICE OF THE NEW
JEWISH GENERATION
Lauren Roumayah