The Night Baker
The Night Baker started out as a cookie delivery company, so named because the co-owners would bake at night after their day jobs.
They still do delivery, but now have a brick and mortar space that was formerly home to Rosen's Cinnamon Buns, famed for baking some of the best cinnamon buns in the city.
They inherited all the Rosen's equipment, but have painted white walls black as night, written Drake lyrics above the door and replaced an art piece of Barbra Streisand with a neon flourish.
Cookies are $2.75 each, two for $5, or six for $15. Baked fresh every day, the pair of ex-chemist owners have tinkered with the temperatures of wet and dry ingredients and the timing of mixing them to get their preferred puffy, ultra-soft result.
Each cookie is painstakingly measured out for consistency. What makes these cookies one-of-a-kind is that they're as close to dough as possible while still fully baked, meaning that they don’t get stale for days (but should be eaten within three).
The Mistachio is one of their signatures, a subtle backdrop of matcha studded with bold white chocolate and pistachios, the crunch breaking up the softness of the cookie.
Ooh Bae is one of the limited edition cookies, which actually combines a cheesecake batter with cookie batter and stuffs it with ube jam. The sticky jam is more baked into the fluffy cookie than oozing from the centre like some of their other creations, and there's definitely a starchy ube flavour here.
Another signature is their Campfire S'mores, something of a misnomer because the instant impression is that of hot chocolate with chocolate chunks and cocoa. However, the marshmallows are toasted to bring the whole cozy picture together, and they provide a stretchy, gooey element that's quite delightful.
Choco Oat is a slightly flatter oatmeal cookie with Belgian dark chocolate chunks. They also have The Classic, a classic chocolate chip cookie as the name suggests with dark chocolate, walnuts and sea salt.
In addition to their limited edition cookies that tend to rotate, they also make seasonal treats like a fabulous Irish Coffee cookie filled with melty Bailey's-infused chocolate, or cookies with Mini Eggs for Easter, mini candy bars for Halloween, or even a Game of Thrones "Red Wedding" raspberry white chocolate cheesecake cookie.
As was the case with Rosen's, drip coffee ($2) is provided by Ezra's Pound.
Co-owners Leanne and Mitchell Cabrera used to do deliveries themselves, but now they may employ couriers and delivery apps.
Hector Vasquez