From Hicksville to NYC: Thin Cookies opens Manhattan location
Thin Cookies has expanded from Hicksville to open a location in Manhattan. Credit: Newsday/Marie Elena Martinez
Hicksville's Zohal Raja scaled her baking hobby during the pandemic, and in 2023, the Hicksville-based Thin Cookies moved into a large space on Jerusalem Ave. Now Thin Cookies has expanded to Manhattan, opening a new shop on Bleecker Street.
"I used to buy Tate’s cookies all the time," Raja said at the time of the Hicksville opening. "My husband made fun of me for liking them because they’re so crispy. One day, he asked if I could try to make a softer version." Raja nailed them. The cookies — paper thin and light, chewy and soft on the inside, crisp on the outside — are a refreshing departure from the market-saturated jumbo stuffed cookie trend.
When her small home business began to grow, it was the cookies that really took off. As the pandemic progressed, Raja pivoted away from her 9 to 5 graphic design job, and set up kiosks at Broadway Mall and Smith Haven Mall for the 2021 holiday season. Soon enough, Raja outgrew her home kitchen, graduating to a shared incubator kitchen space in Long Island City. Then came the Hicksville retail store, which is just around the corner from her home. Now, the Big Apple.
Like in Hicksville, the Bleecker St. store offers Thin Cookies in three core cookie flavors: chocolate chip, double chocolate chip, and Snickerdoodle, a cinnamon sugar cookie with nostalgic flavoring. Cookies are $7 for six, $13 for 12 and $25 for 24. Monthly flavors alternate and are announced on social media.
Thin Cookies, 166 Bleecker St., New York, 212-901-3340, thincookiesny.com; Open daily from noon to 10 p.m.
A global freelancer who has checked her suitcase to raise her young daughter on her native Long Island, Marie Elena will always make time for good mezcal, even better tacos and killer conversation. Preferably, in a corner bar seat. She can be found on Instagram at @mariesworldeats.
