Craig’s Cookies opens first Halifax location on Barrington Street

More than 50 people stood in the cold on Barrington Street Thursday morning, waiting for Halifax’s newest dessert shop to open for a chance to try the venue’s gourmet cookies.  

At 10 a.m. Craig’s Cookies’ newest location officially opened the doors to its Halifax location. The Canadian franchise, started by Craig Pike in 2013, now has 24 locations across Canada. This is the first in the Maritimes.

The shop is located at 1581 Barrington St. and sports vibrant pink walls and colourful decor. Blue and yellow tiles cover the front counter and back wall, and custom art pieces hang on the wall by the cash.

Pike says the design choices of the shop are very intentional. Growing up in St. John’s, N.L., the blue is a callback to Pike’s home and reminds him of the Atlantic Ocean. The hardwood floors remind him of his grandmother’s house, and the yellow makes him think of sunshine. 

Each pink, half-dozen size box of cookies is topped with a rainbow heart as a celebration of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community which Pike himself is a part of. 

Before he was a baker, Pike was an actor and musician. When he needed extra money between gigs, he defied the traditional route of a “coffee shop job”, and hopped on his bike to start selling cookies with his mom’s secret recipe instead.

Emily Chisholm and Pilaa Williams were the first two in line when the Halifax location opened, arriving at 8 a.m. They hadn’t known about the brand by name, but flyers and social media posts caught their attention enough to show up two hours early.

Kristen Petrikowski and Adam Bonner, two long-time Craig’s Cookies enthusiasts, came out half an hour later at 8:30 a.m., and were quick to explain their love for the brand to Chisholm and Williams. 

The couple discovered Craig’s Cookies in 2024 while they were celebrating their anniversary in Toronto and Petrikowski smelled them at Union Station. 

“I just got hit in the face with the smell of baked cookies and I had to follow the smell and see where it was coming from,” she said. “I have not stopped thinking about them ever since.”

The store’s opening takes place just two weeks after Vandal Doughnuts, another Halifax dessert business, closed down. 

Pike says he isn’t worried about finding customers in Halifax.

“What we’ve built as a brand is something that’s really steeped in community and bringing people together,” he said. 

Brendan Waddell, the new owner of their Halifax location, agrees.

“I’m very confident in this industry, I’m very confident in leading a good team,” he said. “There’s so much other cool stuff around here and so to be part of the new growth in downtown is super exciting.”

When Chisholm and Williams finally got to try their free cookie, they were quick to praise how “delicious” the treat was. 

“It’s not too sweet,” Williams said, when asked about what set it apart from other brands she’d tried.

“Like the right amount of baked and chocolatey,” Chisholm added.

As the franchise continues to grow, Pike says one of the challenges has been finding a way to keep integrity and his values intact as the business changed. 

“I think in my mind, somewhere it feels like it’s still a, you know, pimped-out bake sale. But obviously it’s grown to something quite big,” he said.