Sweet! They bake cookies and stuff them. Gourmet dessert shop readies for Durbin Park debut (2024)

Let's get down and dirty. Freshly baked cookies are craveable. And freshly baked gourmet cookies stuffed with sweet, indulgent fillings are craveable to the max.

Soon-to-open in Durbin Park, a new dessert shop specializes in freshly baked gourmet cookies "engineered from the inside out."

Husband and wife entrepreneurs Caleb and Jalen Hutchinson of St. Augustine are bringing the inaugural Dirty Dough shop to 90 Durbin Pavilion Drive Suite C-103 at The Pavilion at Durbin Park shopping center in Saint Johns.

The couple are targeting a June 15 opening. But because "there are a lot of moving pieces,' it might be pushed back to the second half of June, Caleb Hutchinson said.

"It's going to be grab-and-go style," he said of the 1,470-square foot dessert shop that also will offer custom, specialty sodas, ice cream and ultimately some edible cookie dough.

Dirty Dough — founded in Tempe, Ariz., in 2018 — is expanding its nationwide footprint. The Hutchinsons are at the forefront of the expansion in Northeast Florida.

The cookie shop will join Cinemark movie theater as well as multiple restaurants including Keke's Breakfast Cafe, Peterbrooke Chocolatier, Trattoria di Bernardone and Walk-On's Sports Bistreaux at the shopping center.

Hutchinson said their idea is to complement the existing food options such as the full-service and fast-casual restaurants nearby.

"We want people to have some quick dessert options that they will be able to take on their way back home or to eat in the Durbin Pavilion area," Hutchinson said.

What's with the name?

Dirty Dough stands out from its cookie competition because as the company says on its website: "it's what's inside that counts."

As for the name, the "Dirty" refers to all the fillings, mix-ins and layers that go into the cookie process, Hutchinson said.

'Pinnacle of sweet treats'

Dirty Dough cookies stand out, Hutchinson said, because they are triple layers, which is unique.

"They are probably the pinnacle of sweet treats," Hutchinson said of the cookies described by the company on its website as "super-stuffed cookie bombs."

"We will have five mainstays, cookies that will always be on the menu … Then every week we'll have two new cookies on our menu," he said, noting currently there are about 30 different cookies in the rotation. "Honestly, the menu is really changing and growing for those rotational cookies."

Mainstays that have proven most popular at other Dirty Dough locations include the stuffed chocolate chip cookie, which has milk chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate chips and is stuffed with edible cookie dough, he said.

Hutchinson said the Cookies N' Creme also is a customer favorite. It is a vanilla cookie loaded with Oreo cookie chunks and white chocolate chips then stuffed with creme filling and topped with white icing and Oreo crumbs.

In addition, the Brookie — a combination brownie and chocolate chip cookie that's filled and drizzled with caramel sauce — as well as the Chocolate Peanut Butter cookie, which is a chocolate cookie with fudge filling that is garnished with a chocolate drizzle and crushed Reese's peanut butter candy, also are popular.

Recent rotational offerings include the Smirk, which was a chocolate cookie "crowned with fudge frosting and caramel peanut candy bar pieces," the menu on the Dirty Dough website shows.

Another is the Carmadoodle, which is a brown sugar cookie "topped with sweet cream cheese frosting and gooey caramel. " And there is the Apple Crisp, which was an oatmeal cookie topped with cream cheese frosting and spiced apples.

Gluten-free options will be available.

Cookie prices range from $4.55 for one to $16.47 for a box of four, $23.18 for a half dozen a a dozen for $44.10, Hutchinson said.

"Our ice cream option can be ala mode or we can take any cookie on the menu that day and we'll put it in a shake and we'll grind it up with some ice cream. It's so good," he said.

Hutchinson said for the specialty sodas, they expect to have about 30 different flavors or combinations.

"We're going to be incorporating some toffee and try out some chocolates. We want to have a cold brew option. So there's going to be a plethora pf opportunities … It's going to be a lot of fun," he said.

Sweet inspiration

Hutchinson, 29, also ownshis own marketing company — The Hutch Group. Jalen Hutchinson, 25, previously worked as general manager of a restaurant. They had been looking for investment opportunities as franchise owners.

Dirty Dough is their first restaurant. It evolved from their love of the high-quality cookies and the company's philosophy which summarized by the tagline:“Proudly unique, inside and out.”

"Part of the ethos of the business is what's on the inside that counts," Caleb Hutchinson said. "Everything we do is going to be focused on the center, the inside of the cookie. Like if you're eating a peanut butter cookie, having a glob of chocolate come out is a nice surprise."

The couple previously lived in Arizona, where Dirty Dough was founded. Out west, they were accustomed to have a lot of dessert options. A family favorite activity was getting multiple flavors, cutting the cookies into quarters then sharing the pieces so everyone could try them, he said.

"Something we feel like we missed here from when we lived out West is there were a lot of different dessert options," Hutchinson said. "I feel like here the majority of my dessert options are going to be ice cream focused, which don't get me wrong, I love ice cream nut something we absolutely loved was our cookies and soda mixes, which a lot of companies call them 'dirty sodas.'"

A "dirty soda," he explained is a base soda with multiple flavors, like maybe a strawberry, a vanilla or a creme. The couple wanted to bring that soda concept here.

So, it was a culmination of all those factors that helped them select Dirty Dough. The Durbin Park shop will be the first but not their last. The couple plan to open multiple stores in the area.

"We want to bring something that we love to the friends and families that we've built out here," Hutchinson said.

Company humble beginnings

Dirty Dough was acquired in January by Craveworthy Brands of South Elgin, Ill. A fast-casual restaurant platform company, Craveworthy lists 12 brands nationwide Genghis Grill, Flat Top Grill, Wing It On, Krafted Burger Bar + Tap and Sigri Indian BBQ.

The cookie company has 58 brick-and-mortar locations and 10 mobile units, along with at least 40 franchise locations in development, Franchise Times reported in January.

Hutchinson expects the Durbin Park shop hours to be 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. daily.

Teresa Stepzinski is the dining reporter for the Times-Union. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @TeresaStepz or reach her via email at tstepzinski@jacksonville.com.

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