Bkookies Cafe sells comfort with a capital "C." From its array of laminated pastries and hockey-puck-sized cookies, to a brunch menu rife with warming plates, it exploits an army of feel-good eats to make customers feel right at home.

Opened in early November, Bkookies Cafe is a new entrant in the crowded College Street scene. A welcoming space, it's a spot where rustic accents meet modern fixtures, and pops of pink cast every inch in a rosy glow.

"We didn't want pink overload," laughs Kim Oreiro, who co-owns the cafe with her husband, Rolando. "But we wanted something that's a little bit different to other places around here," she continues. "We don't want to blend in. We want to stand out a bit."

Its pastry counter heaving under masses of butter-based goodies, the seductive aroma of espresso hanging in the air, Bkookies certainly offers its stretch of College something new.  

Helmed by Rolando Oreiro, Bkookies' kitchen is a bustling space, pumping out hearty deli sandwiches and salads, parfaits, brunch classics and, naturally, loads and loads of kookies, the team's name for its signature creations.

"The kookies, the way it started out was during the pandemic," explains Rolando Oreiro. "I took time off from work, and with the pandemic happening, our way of creating a bit of an income was selling some baked goods."

The recipe perfected, even to the exacting standards of the couple's three picky kids, Oreiro's kookies became the cornerstone of a more ambitious enterprise — a cafe and brunch spot that sates appetites as it satisfies the need for togetherness.

"We wanted to grow," explains Oreiro, whose 20 years as a culinary professional inform every aspect of his menu. The couple, he adds, wanted to focus on comfort food and baked goods, all made with as many locally-sourced ingredients as possible. They also wanted "to find that sense of community that we lost during the pandemic."

Be it a frothy Flat White ($5.50) or no-nonsense espresso, coffee at Bkookies Cafe is a wise first order, thanks to beans sourced from Barocco Coffee Company. "They are phenomenal," gushes Oreiro, of the local roasters. "When you have coffee here, you don't even need sugar. The acidity, the sweetness is so well-balanced."

There's also a selection of specialty lattes, ranging from chai and caramel to the chartreuse-hued Iced Matcha Latte ($6).

As for food, "we do our own croissants, our own kookies," says chef. "All our breads are made in-house. We bake them daily."

Glistening and golden, said croissants are sold plain, flavoured with seasonal ingredients, fashioned into sandwiches or stuffed with kookie dough and baked into Crookies ($7), that genre-defying mash-up of two splendid sweets.  

Currently available from Friday to Sunday, Bkookies' brunch menu hews closely to the comfort-food theme. A carefully curated list, it nonetheless manages to appeal to savoury eaters and those with sweet teeth.

A sizeable bowl of greens, the Organic Iceberg Salad ($16) has enough add-ins — from creamy avocado and crunchy puffed rice, to sharp parm and house pickled onions — to keep it from feeling too austere.

Eggs Benedict ($20), meanwhile, begins with a lofty, fresh-baked English muffin and thick-cut bacon. A poached egg and chef's "45-minute hollandaise" round out the recipe. Saucy and velvety, tender and rich, it's the kind of meal that makes a weekend feel complete.

With its plume of greens, plush avocado layer and cloak of yolk, Avocado Croissant ($18) is an exuberant riff on more ho-hum, toast-based versions of the dish.

A top-seller, and one of the Oreiro kids' faves, Crispy Chicken Sandwich ($16) finds white meat dressed in a mix of all-purpose, rice flour and cornstarch, then fried until craggy and crisp, yet light. Topped with house pickles and dressing, it squishes, then shatters in an altogether pleasing series of satisfying bites.

As for the sweet fiends in the room? There are kookies ($4), of course, including Red Velvet, Chocolate Chunk and Lemon Meringue, the team's staple flavours.

Piled three to a plate, sauced lavishly with fruit and maple syrup, whip cream on the side, downy Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes ($19) satisfy the need for a meal that steers well clear of the savoury side of things.

A place that the Oreiros hope will "provide a sense of comfort and community," Bkookies is about much more than its curated collection of satisfying, scrumptious food.

Bkookies Cafe is located at 579 College Street.