Thin Cookies is heading to a 600-square-foot space at 166 Bleecker Street. This will be the second retail location for the brand, which currently has one spot open in Hicksville.
Husband-and-wife team Yoseph Raja and Zohal Azimi Raja started the company in 2021. Zohal’s father owns an Afghan bakery in Queens, so Zohal grew up baking for fun. Inspired by this, Zohal crafted a thin, soft cookie that would serve as the basis for the business.
Thin Cookies gained traction in the wholesale space and began receiving social media attention. The duo then began to look into brick-and-mortar locations, and they opened their first spot in November 2023 in a 2,000-square-foot space in Hicksville.
“About a year in, we realized the retail response was great, and we started focusing more on retail,” Yoseph told What Now New York. “We added more stuff in the shop, like seating, coffee and ice cream.”
Yoseph said that the spot in Manhattan will serve only cookies for now since it is a smaller space than the location in Hicksville. Customers can expect to find their three staple flavors — chocolate chip, snickerdoodle and double chocolate — as well as a selection of three other flavors that will rotate every month.
The team expects to open the spot by the beginning of June.
Yoseph emphasizes that they bake with simple, natural ingredients. Each cookie is hand-scooped and hand-rolled, as well, which adds a personalized touch to the products.
Eventually, they hope to expand to more shops, focusing first on the New York market. In the long-term, Yoseph could see them expanding to other states.
“We have the space and capacity to continue to grow our smaller retail locations,” Yoseph said. “We could continue to open up smaller shops like this in the 600-square-foot range all across the city. We’re looking right now in Brooklyn.”
