3411 Connecticut Ave, NW
The owner of Captain Cookie shares the below note with us:
“In December 2021 when Kirk and I signed a 10 year lease for 3411 Connecticut Ave it was, as it is with every new venture, with a mix of nerves and excitement. We’d been operating our DC-founded cookies & ice cream business for nine years at that point, and had shepherded the business through COVID. We were ready for the business to grow and thrive and to turn the page on the awfulness of a global pandemic and the destruction it brought to DC businesses. We had so many customers and clients in the upper NW part of the city that we felt we’d found the perfect spot in Cleveland Park.
Years of construction followed in what should have been a relatively simple and rapid build out to get open. Our process was slowed by everything from DC’s absurdly complicated and slow permitting processes, difficult logistics due to the historic nature and condition of our parcel, street-level construction that timed poorly with our own project, and post-pandemic and global conflict related supply chain challenges.
But when we finally, finally cut the ribbon in the fall of 2023, you all met us with a smile and with interest in our fresh cookies and locally-sourced ice cream. You welcomed us as your neighbor and brought us your orders for birthday parties, office meetings, backyard BBQs and every day dessert cravings. It was an honor to serve you. You helped us raise money to support causes that truly matter: ending hunger in our city, local schools and community-building groups.
Alas, though we intended a long-term presence in the neighborhood, the time has come much more quickly than we had hoped to say goodbye. I don’t need to tell you how difficult it is to do business in DC – just glance up and down your neighborhood retail corridor. In spite of a strong reputation and diehard neighborhood fans, we simply could not bring in enough revenue to support the astronomical and rapidly rising costs of labor, utilities, insurance and supplies.
We wish the next business owner brave enough to try supporting his or her family through a local business all the luck in the world, and we hope you, our cherished friends, will give them a try, too.
And when you’re craving Captain Cookie, please stop in and say hello at one of our two remaining DC locations, or one of our food trucks. We are still serving up Kirk’s famous cookies at Western Market in Foggy Bottom and Brookland, in the Tastemakers incubator kitchen. And, you can also get delivery directly online or bring a Captain Cookie truck to your next event. We are so very, very appreciative to have the privilege of your purchase. We’ll have fresh cookies & local ice cream ready for you, and served with a smile.
Juliann Francis
Captain Cookie & the Milk Man”