A cookie shop opens in Dallas’ Snider Plaza: Called, whose cookies are filled with large chunks of chocolate
Ben’s cookiesis an international chain based in Oxford, England, which is opening a location at 3406 Rosedale Ave., a corner of Bubba’s Cooks Country cats and across from SMU.
According to owner Truett Horne, the store will open this weekend.
Horne brought the concept from England to the US in 2022 when he opened the first store at Grapevine Mills Mall in Grapevine. It will be his second placement.
Ben’s cookies follow classic chocolate chip recipes, but instead of chocolate chips, they use large chunks of chocolate.
Base flavors include milk chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and double chocolate chips with chocolate chips in a chocolate base.
Other flavors include:
- white chocolate and cranberries
- white chocolate and macadamia
- dark chocolate and ginger
- dark chocolate and nuts
There are also non-chocolate cookies including Oatmeal Raisin, Peanut Butter, Lemon, Ginger, Coconut, and the snickerdoodle cookie that Horne introduced in late 2022, which became a hit.
One surprise at the Grapevine store was brisk sales of frozen treats including shakes and ice cream, including their “cookie monster,” a decadent combination of cookies and ice cream. They also send cookies locally and nationally to Ben’s fans across the US
The first Ben’s opened in Oxford in 1984; there are now 60 locations in England, Scotland, Singapore, Dubai, Kuwait, Thailand, Korea, the Philippines and Japan.
Horne discovered cookies in college.
“I was introduced to Ben’s when I was studying abroad in Oxford, where their first location is, and I fell in love with their cookies,” he says. “They are very focused on ingredients and process.
Their cookies are large and fall on the cake side, ranging from soft to crunchy. “They say that if a cookie and a cake had a baby, it would be Ben’s,” says Horne, a former marketing executive who worked for companies such as JCPenney and McKinsey & Co.
Finding a family-friendly location was a priority, which led to Snider Plaza, where the store is moving into a former preschool that has been completely renovated.
“I like that Snider Plaza has a sense of heritage with long-time retailers that have been tenants for a while,” he says. “Being across from SMU means we can serve the university community, I think it’s going to be fun.”
“And this felt like the right place, like it was made for us,” he says. “It’s a brick building and aesthetically it feels perfect. It’s just like a bakery.”