By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
NOLITA — First the Bowery...then the world.
Downtown Cookie Co. is expanding onto the shelves of Whole Foods Market at the corner of Bowery and Houston Street, in what the company sees as a first step in taking a small, West Village-based cookie operation national.
"We hope to eventually be in every store in the city and in the country," said Sarah Anderson, a spokeswoman for the company, which was started by Dan Guerrera in 2008.
Guerrera started the company out of his West Village kitchen and is now in a commercial space in Hell's Kitchen, where a staff of nearly 50 people produce the handmade treats.
Guerrera's cookies first caught on in Village coffee houses.
"We sell a billion of them," said Jessica Burtin, the manager of Joe's (The Art of Coffee) on East 9th Street, where the Oatmeal Raisin flavor was sold out on Monday.
"They just taste really homemade," Burtin said.
Now, six-packs of the company's gourmet flavors like Jane Street Jam, Chocolate Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Ginger sell for $10.99 in the bakery section of the Whole Foods located at 95 E. Houston St.
In addition to the cookies' presence on the shelves at Whole Foods, Downtown cookies are still available at 14 different cafés across Manhattan, including Lily O'Brien's on West 40th Street, Recess on University Place and Café Café on Broome Street.
"There are some great places you can get our cookies around the city," Anderson said.
A full list can be found here.
