There’s a bite-size new bakery on the border of Chinatown and FiDi. Sandwiched between a law office and a spa with more one-star Yelp reviews than four, Cookie Chachi opened in November hawking cookies with South Asian flavors, including cardamom, date, and the Indian dessert jalebi. It joins a growing number of singularly focused microbakeries that are putting the humble cookie at center stage.
Obviously, this is no Crumbl, the international chain whose first cavernous San Francisco store debuted last month to long lines and a visit from the mayor. To the contrary, Cookie Chachi has a Kearny Street storefront that’s so narrow you can pass it in three long strides. Beneath a peach-colored banner, the bakery sells individually wrapped, fresh-baked cookies, chai, and cold brew.
Owner Yasmin Jhita launched the business with her husband, Kabir Jhita, and brother Saajan Jolly. It represents the realization of not only her dream but that of her maternal grandmother, Juanita Barrientos, who was a lifelong baker, though never professionally. “My grandmother always wanted a bakery,” Jhita says. “This was born as a love letter to her.”
It was also born out of a bit of bad luck. Jhita was laid off from her healthcare job early last year and struggled to find a new position. That’s when her husband encouraged her to take the leap into the cookie business. She decided to call the business Cookie Chachi after the nickname given to her by her nephews (“chachi” means “aunt” in Punjabi) and debuted in May at Bhangra and Beats Night Market.
Jhita brought 100 jalebi cookies to that first event, which required first making the fried, spiral dessert flavored with rose and saffron, then crushing it into a shortbread-like dough. She sold out hours before the market was over. “That was when we realized, OK, maybe there’s something here,” she says.
Given that the retail location is scarcely bigger than a Harry Potter closet, Jhita and her team do all the baking at Forage Kitchen in Oakland and deliver the cookies to the city before the shop opens at noon. Uniquely, they heat-seal each cookie to make them easier to grab and go. Packaging them as soon as they’re cooled from the oven also extends their shelf life. All of Cookie Chachi’s creations are baked using only “ingredients you can read,” Jhita says — which means without preservatives.
If you want to try the popular Dubai pistachio knafeh cookie, inspired by the TikTok-famous chocolate bar, it’s best to show up close to opening. It starts with the same base as Jhita’s classic chocolate chip cookie, which features local Tcho chocolate, then gets stuffed with crunchy strands of butter-toasted phyllo dough and Italian pistachio spread. Another favorite is the cardamom-and-date variety, sweetened primarily with maple syrup and Medjool dates, which has a soft texture “somewhere between a cookie and a muffin.” It’s one of several egg-free recipes in the Cookie Chachi lineup.
Jhita hopes to add treats besides cookies to the bakery’s case — maybe a coffee cake, one of her favorites. “But for now, cookies are keeping us busy enough,” she says. “There are so many possibilities.” And at its heart, Cookie Chachi will always stay true to its roots as an homage to her grandmother. The peanut butter cookies, which have a texture like polvorones, are made from her original recipe.