By Tori Templet | Staff Writer
Milk Bottle Cookies, a local cookie company, has been providing Waco with specialty cookies along with the classics for the past three years. What started out in a household kitchen has grown into a standalone storefront located at 218 S. 11th St. near Milo.
In Sept. 2018, owner and founder Makenzie Asisi decided to take her family’s cookie recipes and turn them into something bigger. Asisi said she began selling cookies out of her home with online orders, but always had a larger vision for her business.
“Starting out, it was a hard journey, but I’ve always gone against the grain,” Asisi said. “I always wanted my own bakery and my own kitchen, but I wanted to do it right. I wanted to grow organically. I know what my family has bred in me with these recipes, and I wanted the people to simply love my cookies.”
While successfully running her own business, Asisi said she still struggles to balance her time as a mother of three.
“It’s hard to be the mom, the business owner, the wife – to be it all,” Asisi said. “There are some days where I just want to close down and look at my kids, but then there’s someone that wants the cake to celebrate their own kid. It’s hard to know where to draw the line, but that’s when you know it is time to find people to help you out.”
As Milk Bottle Cookies has grown, Asisi said she has found many benefits to having employees that surround her and help bring the business to life.
Front of House Manager Courtney Jett has been working with Asisi for over a year and started out helping with fulfilling orders and deliveries. Since the storefront recently opened on Aug. 21, Jett has found that there are both difficulties and rewards with having a stand-alone location.
“This is our first storefront, so we are trying to find the flow of things right now,” Jett said. “Not knowing what to expect has been hard, but it has been great to see how amazing our customers have been and the support they have shown.”
Jett said that even though it is different from what she was doing previously for the business, it feels great to see how Milk Bottle Cookies has blossomed since she started.
Moving forward, Asisi said she plans to open more stores while focusing on the smaller towns throughout Texas. While looking toward the future, she is soaking in her accomplishment of opening her first storefront in Waco and going back to her roots.
“To have people come in and say ‘I used to sit on your couch and wait for you to pull cookies out of your oven,’ that is so bizarre to me,” Asisi said. “I remember it like it was yesterday, but somehow everything has oddly fallen into place here.”
