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

