I’ll never forget my first Chipkick cookie. I’d just run a half-marathon and decided to treat myself to one of these uber-Instagrammable oversize mounds of dough stuffed with all kinds of sweet surprises. I popped it in the oven for seven minutes (as directed), pulled it out and broke it down the middle for a fresh-baked bite that both brought me back to the sugar rushes of my youth while also serving up a modern take on tradition.
But that’s just what the local family-owned biz—run by head baker Michelle Giordano, her husband and creative director Nicholas, and his sister and marketing director Samantha Giordano Kim—is about.
“A lot of the flavors are rooted in nostalgia and memories from our childhood,” says Michelle, who has a background in engineering and, since Chipkick’s inception in June 2020, has taken on each iteration like a science project. “Once I perfected my dough, I had my ‘control.’ Now it’s just about how to introduce new ingredients, tweaking measurements to see how they impact moisture, consistency—the chemical makeup, basically.”
Michelle and the crew experiment with their delicious data in a commercial kitchen in Chantilly, and all three brainstorm ideas. The Dunk90 was over-the-top—a 90s-inspired version with a Funfetti base, Teddy Grahams and a vanilla marshmallow frosting stuffing. Holiday twists include a Just the Marshmallows for St. Patrick’s Day: It features the best parts of Lucky Charms. Spring should bring more fruit-forward launches. Then there are the signatures, such as the OGio, a signature cookie base with chocolate chips and chunks.
The batches (at least six) “drop” every Friday at 1 p.m. on chipkickcookies.com. (The trio has a passion for sneakers—hence the “kick”—and designed their weekly releases to mirror those of labels like Nike.) Sometimes they’re snapped up in minutes; sometimes flavors linger. Once an order is submitted, the confections are baked, heat-sealed for freshness and shipped out nationwide on Tuesdays. NoVA folks get them the following day.
So what’s next? Aside from pop-ups (they debuted at One Loudoun in December), a recent cookie-cake launch, and getting to know their local fans (who tag their cookie breaks on Insta), Nicholas and Michelle are expecting their first child this spring.
Perhaps the little one will get #chipkicked, too.
Feature image courtesy Chipkick
