Cookies & More

Alex O'Brien helped his parents bake here as a child. Through high school he worked the counter beside his siblings, Jack and Sara, then left for a hotel and restaurant management degree at Southwest Missouri State and came back to run the place with his mother. He and his wife Angie have it now. JCPenney, Younkers, B. Dalton, Zales, Sam Goody and the second-floor arcade have all gone from the building; the counter has had one family throughout. A cookie costs fifteen cents more wrapped and fifty more with vanilla buttercream. For a group, loose party cookies at $6.50 the dozen beat the trays, which work out between $7.04 and $8.13. The difference buys the arrangement. Twelve-inch cookie cakes are $28 and serve eight to ten. They are baked through the day, not pulled from a case.