Andrea's Cookies is the happy amalgam of marketing savvy, a taste for sweets and judicious pops of pink all rolled into one.

With cookies that appeal to aggressively sweet-toothed customers as keenly as they do to those courting social media favour, it's a spot that's got more than its six weekly flavours to thank for the lineups out the door.  

A self-taught baker, Andrea Mears jumped from marketing and PR to her current role as the owner of a wildly popular bakery in the type of story that sounds like the stuff of dreams.

"I have no formal training in baking or food or anything like that," she explains. "I just always loved finding recipes online and Googling things. Baking was just kind of like a hobby for me."

Housebound during the pandemic, Mears doubled down on her baking, often posting her efforts to Instagram. "If people wanted to buy them, great. If not, I'd just eat them with my then boyfriend," she says.

Said boyfriend must have quickly learned to deal with disappointment because Mears' cookies not only sold, but they became so popular that she soon created a website for the burgeoning brand.

Mears ran the business out of her home kitchen for two years before opening the first Andrea's Cookies location, along with a central production kitchen, in July, 2022.

In early October, the doors to Andrea's Cookies' second location opened on the Ossington strip. A meticulous, rosy-hued space designed by StudioAC, the shop is a natural addition to the area's raft of cafés and boutique clothing stores, restaurants and other Millennial magnets.  

Simple and uncluttered, the bakery relies on little more than the scent of fresh-baked cookies, the company's bold new logo, and the reputation of its sole attraction to entice passersby.

Once inside, they find themselves defenseless in front of a display of soft-baked, buttery, plump offerings. "They have to taste amazing, but they also have to look amazing," declares Mears. "It can't be one or the other."

Made with enough sugar to leave little doubt that these should count as "sometimes treats," Mears' cookies ($4.50 each, $26 for six, $50 for a dozen) tug on our collective cravings for one of life's most nostalgic desserts.

Visit weekly, and you'll notice rotating flavours meant to ensure that cookie ennui never sets in. Though Chocolate Chunk is a mainstay of the menu, it's joined by seasonal flavours like Cinnamon Roll and Honey Cornbread, Caramel Pecan and Almond Croissant.

"We have  a lot of classic flavours," explains Mears, adding that she also gets "inspired by other types of desserts. Like how do I make a cookie out of tiramisu? Or pecan pie?"

Social media has also spawned cookies adapted from viral flavours and creations, like the pistachio-laced knafeh bar and the crookie.  

Some flavours sport a buttercream crown or gooey sweet glaze while others are adorned with little more than a sprinkling of sea salt. Many, explains Mears, are made with texturally-interesting add-ins, from nuts to toffee, sprinkles to candy-coated chocolates. "I like anything that has crunch," she admits.

Though you might yearn for a drink to sip on with your sweets, Mears won't be adding to the menu just yet. "I'm not opposed to a bit of coffee," she says, "but there are so many good coffee spots on this street that, for now, it's just the cookies."

Grab one cookie or a dozen, and head outside. There, you'll likely bump into influencers filming breathless closeups as they react to their first bites. Social media darlings, these cookies have risen above their humble recipes to become covetable tokens in the digital game.

"After the weekend, I always have a ton of tags on TikTok and Instagram of people trying the flavours and rating them. The cookies are definitely having a moment," says Mears.

"I think they're pretty special," she adds. "The flavour and the look are pretty important but it's also about community."

Skilled at rallying Andrea's Cookies fans around every new flavour, every behind-the-scenes peek, and every cookie collab, Mears's baking hobby has morphed into a business now selling thousands of cookies per day.

And to those who just can't get enough? "I would love to expand," she laughs. "If I could open one in every neighbourhood, I would."

Andrea's Cookies is located at 166 Ossington Avenue.