Warm deliciousness will be coming to your door in two ways in the next few weeks as two cookie-delivery-services expand their operations to Harvard students. Insomnia Cookies and Have a Sweet Idea cater to a very similar crowd—college students looking for a convenient late-night sugar fix—and soon, both will be available to the Harvard community.
TWO FLAVORS OF BUSINESS
Insomnia Cookies is well-established near college campuses around the country, including at Ivy-League schools Yale, Penn, and Cornell. Have a Sweet Idea is a local cookie bike-delivery company started by Somerville resident John Piermarini that serves Boston University, Tufts University, and Northeastern University. He is planning to expand delivery to Harvard Square next Thursday.
Insomnia Cookies, a late-night cookie delivery chain, will be opening in the next few weeks, according to the company’s marketing manager, Renee Sarnecky.
The 600-square-foot location, at 65 Mount Auburn St.—under Quincy Swing Space—has been under construction since the summer and is now in the final stages of preparations. 65 Mount Auburn St. previously housed Harvard Square Optical.
Insomnia Cookies will be open daily from 1 p.m. to 3 a.m. for retail hours. Delivery service begins at 6 p.m. and is available until closing. The new Square eatery will deliver for a $6.00 minimum order and a $0.99 additional fee.
Delivery orders can be made over the phone or on the website. Customers can pre-order for a specific time or make an “ASAP order”—the typical delivery time of which is 30 minutes.
All of Insomnia Cookies’ stores offer a standardized menu which includes regular cookies, deluxe cookies, brownies, and ice cream.
Each store has a staff of about 20 people and the Harvard Square location is currently accepting applications.
During the grand opening week, which is yet to be announced, Insomnia Cookies plans to have a celebration with free cookies.
Have A Sweet Idea has been looking to serve Harvard Square for a while. Piermarini plans to start off making deliveries around Harvard Square himself on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, but intends to hire workers for the area. Delivery people on other local campuses don orange jumpsuits and bike from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. delivering pre-packaged cookies. They charge $5 for five cookies, and delivery is free.
Piermarini, who started selling cookies while a student at Rochester Institute of Technology, said he always had a passion for baking. He founded the cookie delivery company in January 2011, the year after he graduated. He added that he is no stranger to Insomnia Cookies.
“Basically the reason I decided ‘Hey maybe this isn’t crazy’ is because I read about Insomnia Cookies,” Piermarini said.
His company bakes out of a facility in Jamaica Plain and offers a few standard cookies including chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, and tazadoodle—a snickerdoodle-like cookie made with local Taza chocolate. Additionally, they rotate new cookie flavors each week and plan to offer other goods, such as cookie sandwiches and cinnamon rolls.
MORE LATE-NIGHT TO SQUARE
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