MidnighTreats, a vegan cookie shop with locations in Vienna and Reston, opens its third location in Old Town Alexandria on Friday, August 11. To celebrate the grand opening, customers at the new location can take home a free chocolate chip cookie while supplies last.
“Old Town is definitely a place we’ve been checking out, trying to get in here. It’s definitely a cool, like, literally ‘old town’ vibe,” says Johnny Nguyen, who runs the business with his wife, Diana.
Nguyen says that the building itself, the location of the former Fleurir Chocolates, was a draw, since it was designed for food production. Fleurir Chocolates closed last December after 14 years. The Payne Street location, adjacent to King Street, was also a plus.
“It was kind of a perfect location for us,” Nguyen says.
MidnighTreats’ menu typically features four permanent classic flavors — chocolate chip, double chocolate, Cinna-Roll, and Birthday Bash — and two rotating limited-time flavors.
For the Old Town opening, it will pull out all the stops with a large menu of specialty flavors for the first week. Those will include Super Snickerdoodle (a snickerdoodle with cookie butter on top), oatmeal raisin, oatmeal chocolate, strawberry shortcake, blueberry, red velvet, cookies and cream, and lemon bar.
And these are not standard cookies. The treats are made from scratch with only plant-based ingredients, and each one weighs over one-third of a pound. The shop’s website recommends eating only one-quarter to one-half at a time.
This is the third location of the cookie business. Nguyen started the company in 2018, operating part-time out of his mom’s kitchen in the Vienna area. He continued to grow the business in the years following, expanding to a commercial kitchen, then a one-year pop-up in Chantilly, and finally the first retail space in Reston in May 2022. The second location opened in Vienna shortly after, in December 2022.
These cookies are part of a larger goal. The website states the company’s mission is “to end the negative perception around plant-based foods by creating fun and exciting treats,” which MidnighTreats hopes will “lead to a decrease in consumer demand for animal ingredients, which will lead to the end of abusive factory farming.”
“We’re just trying to show that it doesn’t necessarily need to rely on animal ingredients for it to be tasty,” Nguyen says.
In keeping with that eco-friendly business model, the company also makes donations to animal shelters and has partnered with Eden Reforestation Projects so that one tree is planted in locations in need of reforestation for every box of cookies sold.
Cookies are available in boxes of four for $14.99, six for $20.99, and nine for $28.99. The stores are take-out only, with no seating in-house. Cookies can be preordered online for pickup or ordered for delivery through DoorDash.
The new location is located at 110 S. Payne St., Alexandria, and will be open from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m., Wednesdays through Sundays.
Feature image courtesy MidnighTreats
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