“I’ve been obsessed with cookies since I was a little kid,” Kirk Francis says, thinking back on the path which led to opening Captain Cookie & the Milkman.
Francis baked his first cookie around age four and that love for baking simply continued to grow from there. The DC-based Captain Cookie & the Milkman opened its first Virginia store last month.
“They have always just kind of been my passion, even back in middle and high school,” Francis says. “I would just bring Tupperware full of cookies to school throughout those years.”
Francis went on to work at a bakery throughout college and then when he moved to DC in 2008, he was encouraged by some work colleagues to see if he could sell his cookies at area coffee shops.
And so, he did.
“I was supplying local coffee shops in Northeast DC with cookies, and I did that for a few years on the side,” he says. “But it had always kind of been my ambition to open a bakery shop of my own.”
More specifically, Francis wanted to open a cookie shop.
Francis says he toyed with the idea of baking other treats, but after a test run on his website, he said orders got a little out of hand, and he realized focusing on one type of baked good was the way to go.
“It was a good lesson that specializing in one thing was easier for scaling than with a full menu offering,” adds his wife and co-owner Juliann.
“After that, we cut the menu down to just five or six flavors of cookies,” he says.
The Food Truck Era
Francis and Juliann got married in 2010 and it was around that time when food trucks were beginning to gain traction, especially in cities like DC.
Francis says they had a friend who opened one and saw some success, so they figured it was the cheapest way to test their idea.
“I took the money that I had made with my previous cookie business and invested it into the new venture, purchasing an old newspaper van to start selling cookies on the street,” he says.
It launched in 2012.
“The response was really positive,” Francis says. “It was phenomenally hard work, but it was also fun, and it went well.”
Before long, the duo had another truck, and then a couple more. And around 2015, they opened their first brick and mortar shop in DC.
“Later that year, Juliann chose to leave her job and come on with the business full time,” says Francis. “And we’ve been running Captain Cookie ever since.”
Growth Has Been Good
The cookie company has seen strong growth over the past couple years. It opened its first NoVA storefront in Arlington near the courthouse in February.
“We have three locations in DC proper, the Arlington store, one in Raleigh, NC, and then two in NYC,” says Juliann. “And we will be opening a fifth location later this year in Cleveland Park.”
And on top of that, the company still runs three food trucks in the DC area and has an indoor events division that focuses on social events.
Bring on the Cookies
Captain Cookie features a variety of cookie flavors. Staples that you will always find on the menu are chocolate chip, confetti, snickerdoodle, ginger molasses, peanut butter, double chocolate, oatmeal raisin, and vegan chocolate chip.
But Francis says he likes to play around with different flavors as well, so the shop always has two special rotating cookies on the menu.
These flavors — which have included a cherry blossom cookie for the National Cherry Blossom Festival and a king cake cookie for Mardi Gras — change every seven to 10 days.
“This is partly for the customers, so that they can try new flavors and then also partly for me,” Francis says. “It keeps it fun for me to be able to test out new recipes. It helps feed my passion.”
“He is like a mad scientist in the kitchen,” adds Juliann. “It’s always fun for customers to see what he has come up with.”
Featuring Locally Sourced Milk
Another special feature of visiting Captain Cookie is the fact that it uses locally produced milk and ice cream.
“That is why we’re called ‘Captain Cookie & the Milkman,’” says Juliann. “Because we like to highlight local dairy on our menu.”
Ice Cream Jubilee and South Mountain Creamery are the two main dairy companies used. The dairy is used in one of the most popular items on the menu, the made-to-order ice cream sandwiches.
“It creates a fun experience for our customers,” says Juliann. “They get to choose the top and bottom cookie flavors as well as different ice cream options.”
The menu also includes edible cookie dough, cookie cakes, and milkshakes.
The Arlington location is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 10 a.m. to midnight Thursday and Friday, 11 a.m. to midnight on Saturdays, and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays. 2200 Clarendon Blvd., Arlington
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