HobNob Pizza and cookie bakery expected to open along East Michigan Avenue this spring
LANSING — A pizzeria and a cookie bakery planned for spaces within the $256 million Red Cedar development along East Michigan Avenue are expected to open their doors this spring.
HobNob Pizza and Dunk'd, which sells specialty cookies, both will occupy first-floor storefronts at 3214 E. Michigan Ave., inside the 792-bed student apartment complex, University Edge. They will join existing businesses Feng Cha, a tea, specialty drink and dessert shop, and Tropical Smoothie.
HobNob Pizza expected to open in April
Exterior signage for HobNob, a fast-casual pizzeria being opened by Ohio-based chain The Old Bag of Nails Pub, is already up along East Michigan Avenue. The Old Bag of Nails already operates a location of its pub less than half a mile away off Cascade Boulevard; it opened in October 2022 in a newly constructed, two-story building.
Tim Miller, the company's vice president of operations, said HobNob Pizza, which had been expected to open in late 2023, now should open in April.
"I believe we're in the last part of getting health and some of the other local inspections taken care of," Miller said.
In addition to pizza, HobNob Pizza will focus on subs and salads, a departure from Old Bag of Nails' established chain of restaurants that serve typical pub food, with a menu that includes fish and chips, and burgers. The company operates another fast-casual pizza location, Upper Arlington Pizza Club, in Columbus, Ohio.
Miller estimates the new pizzeria will open with up to 10 employees and will utilize a largely takeout business model, with only a few seats inside the space.
Build-out delays slow progress at Dunk'd
Interior build-out delays in the 1,100-square-foot space Dunk'd is expected to occupy have slowed its opening, said owner Taylor Buckley. The bakery was initially planned to open by February this year.
She's hoping to open "within the next few months, hopefully," she said.
When it opens, the cookie bakery will feature a rotating menu of several different 6-ounce cookies, along with a 1-pound "mega" cookie each week.
Buckley started the business in 2020 when pandemic-related school closures left her unemployed. She started by selling cookies at farmers' markets near her home in Merrill. The Lansing location will be her first storefront.
Buckley's cookies are "super soft and super thick," she told the State Journal last fall. "A lot of them are stuffed with things like cheesecake and frosting or peanut butter, caramel — stuff like that — and then topped with frostings and sprinkles."
The first recipe she perfected was a classic: chocolate chip.
Customers can expect a variety of cookie flavors, including cinnamon roll, churro cheesecake, which is "a snickerdoodle cookie stuffed with cheesecake," and blueberry pancake, which is "a buttermilk flavored cookie with blueberries, a dollop of buttercream frosting and syrup."
The bakery will offer a grab-and-go concept with no seating, and online ordering.
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Contact Reporter Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on X @GrecoatLSJ .
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: HobNob Pizza and cookie bakery expected to open along East Michigan Avenue this spring
