A bright pink shop beside Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q on 21st Avenue, Whimsy Cookie Company is ready to bring joy to the Tuscaloosa community through fresh-baked cookies and vibrant decorations.

With stylish pink-and-gold decor, a velvet couch and elegant chandeliers bringing the shop to life, the franchise based out of Memphis, Tennessee, aims to make customers feel comfortable as soon as they walk through the door. Founded by Laurie Suriff, Whimsy Cookie Co. sells a variety of fresh-baked and decorated cookies, in shapes ranging from footballs and jerseys to candy corn and pumpkins for Halloween.

“Me and my husband partnered with some friends of ours, and we are 50% owners, and then they own the other half,” manager and Tuscaloosa native Stacy Taylor said. “Our goal is to open [in] Birmingham next year, so [our friends] would run Birmingham, we’d run Tuscaloosa.”

On its second day of business in Tuscaloosa, students like Forsyth Latham, a junior majoring in journalism, are already excited to get a taste of Whimsy Cookie Co. Latham looks forward to having a new bakery in such a convenient location, especially as a place she can now visit when friends have birthdays and special occasions.

Emma Wood, a sophomore majoring in nursing, worked at the original Memphis location over the summer and decided to apply for a position at the Tuscaloosa location when she learned that it would be opening. 

“I think it’s just like a fun, little, cute place to go because there’s not really anything else like it, here or really anywhere,” Wood said. “It’s really cute.”

Both Taylor and Wood recommended the gooey butter cookies with chocolate chips. 

“There’s a signature sugar cookie recipe but also the gooeys. The gooeys are very popular,” Taylor said.

The signature item comes in lots of flavors, with the more popular ones being red velvet, dark chocolate, birthday cake and lemon.

“I like the butter chocolate chip gooey and the strawberry. Those are my favorites,” said Wood.

The Whimsy Cookie Company is located at 305 21st Avenue in Tuscaloosa. Its hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Mondays through Wednesdays; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursdays through Saturdays; and 12 to 6 p.m. on Sundays.