4 minute read
Meet Lauren: Inspired by Generations
NEXT DOR
VOICE OF THE NEW JEWISH GENERATION
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Lauren Roumayah
Inspired by Generations
“My goal was to be a neighborhood joint,” says Lauren Roumayah of Detroit Cookie Co.
ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Its most popular cookie is the classic Chocolate Chunk, yet Detroit Cookie Co. is also known for Banana Pudding, Raspberry Cheesecake Oreo and B-Special cookies, the latter of which founder and owner Lauren Roumayah calls “an upgraded snickerdoodle.”
Every day, Detroit Cookie Co., which has locations in Ferndale, Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids, serves up anywhere from 2,000-5,000 baked-fresh cookies.
The work begins at 6 a.m., when bakers first arrive. “We treat it as if we are buyers preparing for the next season, except we do it every single night,” Roumayah explains.
For the 29-year-old business owner, who owns and operates Detroit Cookie Co. alongside her husband and business partner, Tony Sevy, baking cookies is second nature.
Roumayah’s first memory of baking is at the young age of 4, when she’d bake cookies with her mother, Paula. “My mom was the cookie baker in the family,” she recalls. “It went back generations. Around the holidays, we’d make sugar cookies.”
A RETURN TO COOKIES
Today, those recipes and memories inspire Detroit Cookie Co. As she grew up, Roumayah continued to bake. Her friends, and even friends of her friends, would beg her to make cookies. “I would bake copious amounts of sweets,” she remembers.
While dating, Roumayah’s now-husband, Tony, always encouraged her to continue baking. Although she studied fashion merchandising at Wayne State University and went on to work in the field, Roumayah knew her true passion was with making cookies.
“It was not making me happy at all,” she recalls of her original career path. One day, her husband asked her, “What do you want to do, in a perfect world?” Roumayah’s response was instant: “I just want to make cookies,” she said.
Tony was all for the idea. In 2014, the pair began planning the idea for Detroit Cookie Co. By 2015, it was officially established. At the time, Roumayah continued to work her 9-5 job as the business plan came together. “We were making cookies, but now we had to do it legally because you can’t just make cookies in your house,” she says.
FINDING A HOME
Therefore, Roumayah began to seek out a permanent location for Detroit Cookie Co.
First, she turned to the Culinary Studio,
a shared kitchen space in Southfield. As the business grew, a website was established, and Roumayah began fulfilling catering and wholesale orders, the cookie business got to a point where it needed its own roof over its head.
“We worked like that for about two or three years prior to opening our first retail location in Ferndale,” Roumayah says. The Ferndale flagship opened its doors to the public in 2017, becoming an instant hit in the Metro Detroit community and beyond.
“Everyone was so supportive,” Roumayah recalls. “My whole goal was to be a neighborhood joint where people would come in for their morning cup of coffee and/or afternoon cookie, and that truly happened.”
A CRASH COURSE IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Now, some of Roumayah’s top clientele at Detroit Cookie Co. are also her closest friends. Yet launching the business didn’t come without hurdles. “I wasn’t used to being an entrepreneur,” she says. “It was a huge task for me.”
Roumayah put her life savings into the Ferndale location, with the hope that the investment would one day pay off. “I had to quit my job when we opened the bakery,” she continues. “I couldn’t rely on the steady income I was used to having.”
As an entrepreneur, Roumayah says “you do everything yourself.” The biggest challenge, she explains, was keeping her head up through the early days with the belief that she’d eventually be able to hire help. Taking that chance, however, was worth it.
Detroit Cookie Co. continued to grow. As she had hoped, Roumayah was able to hire the help she needed. After two years of steady sales, she and Tony began to look for a second shopfront to scale the business. In 2021, they opened a second location in downtown Ann Arbor, followed by a third location in Grand Rapids later that year.
Now, Detroit Cookie Co. is a sweet-tooth favorite throughout Michigan and beyond. They have a steady social media following and have even been featured on the Cooking Channel. Yet Roumayah says the work is far from done.
“We want to solidify our franchise model,” she explains. “We’re hoping to provide the opportunity for other people to open Detroit Cookie Co. across the country.”
The dream, Roumayah says, is “to be a household brand.”
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