Philly-born Insomnia Cookies expands its ice-cream line and plans to open international shops this summer
The brand, launched in a University of Pennsylvania dorm room, will expand to Canada and the U.K.
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Insomnia Cookies, the warm cookie company founded in Philadelphia, is taking its ice cream to stores across the country.
Cookies IN Ice Cream, the company’s ice-cream line, which has chunks of their cookies blended into the frozen dessert, launched in July 2022. Founder and CEO Seth Berkowitz says the company spent years testing recipes and carrying out consumer research before bringing the ice cream to stores.
“We knew that if we were going to put our brand name on ice cream, it had to be special,” he said via email.
The company has sold ice cream alongside its cookies since the launch of the business, said Berkowitz. But Cookies IN Ice Cream, the line launched last year, is the signature creation of Insomnia Cookies, with flavors ranging from Dreamweaver, which has Double Chocolate Chunk cookies in it, to Peanut Butter Insomniac Tracks, which has swirls of Deluxe Peanut Butter Cup cookies.
Cookies IN Ice Cream has been available only in some stores in the Mid-Atlantic region since its launch in 2022. Now customers can try the ice-cold treat at over 220 of the 240 stores nationwide.
And the company is still growing its reach.
Insomnia Cookies will also expand internationally this summer by opening stores in the Greater Toronto Area in Canada and Manchester in the United Kingdom.
The company was founded by Berkowitz in 2003, who was then a student at the University of Pennsylvania. Frustrated with late-night food options, Berkowitz started selling his cookies out of his dorm room. The first brick-and-mortar store opened in 2006, followed by a fleet of food trucks. In 2018, Krispy Kreme bought a majority stake in the company.
Today, the company has locations across the country, from Philadelphia to California, with stores catering to late-night crowds and offering delivery of warm cookies.
Despite its national and international expansion, Insomnia Cookies’ CEO says he is still focused on its Philadelphia roots. This year, the company is set to open an experiential store and new headquarters at Broad and Chestnut Streets in a space previously occupied by a Walgreens superstore, once heralded as a “game changer” for downtown retail.
The three-story space will have a retail store on the bottom and a test kitchen on the second floor. It will offer customers a sneak peek of flavor experiments and gather their feedback on taste tests.
“The business was founded in Philly; it is our home and always has been. It’s an incredibly important market with a large concentration of bakeries,” said Berkowitz.