New shop brings edible cookie dough to downtown SLO. ‘Nostalgic desserts with a twist’
When Morro Bay native April Bodine began baking edible cookie dough treats with her kids at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was a way to find joy and pass the time — she never dreamed it would become a business.
As Bodine tells it, she “accidentally” started her cookie dough business, The Dough Connection.
“I was at home like everyone else and I was just doing some baking and things that made me and my family happy,” Bodine said. “Then, it just slowly became a thing and friends and family were asking if they could come pick them up.”
Today, The Dough Connection has two locations: Its flagship location, which opened in 2021, is at 913 Embarcadero St. in Morro Bay, while a new location opened at 1075 Court St. in downtown San Luis Obispo in June.
“We are the first and only cookie dough scoop shop in the county,” Bodine said. “Our thing is nostalgic desserts with a twist.”
How SLO County woman built cookie dough company
After friends and family began requesting their own cookie dough orders from Bodine, she turned her hobby into a small business, operating out of her home.
Soon, her business grew beyond what her home could accommodate and she opened her first shop in Morro Bay on the Embarcadero.
After two years of bustling business in Morro Bay, Bodine and her family decided they were ready to take the leap and expand to San Luis Obispo. The shop celebrated its grand opening earlier this summer in June.
The Dough Connection specializes in ready-to-eat cookie dough in a variety of flavors. Though classic flavors like chocolate chip and birthday cake are always available, The Dough Connection has a rotating menu of seasonal favorites like key lime pie for the summer and flavors like pumpkin spice for fall.
If you cannot decide on one flavor, you can also order a flight of cookie dough and try several flavors at once, Bodine said.
For Bodine, it’s about helping her customers enjoy the inherent nostalgia of cookie dough.
“We want to be a place where people can come connect and relive those childhood ‘steal the cookie dough out of the bowl’ memories,” Bodine said.
Both shops feature seating areas and art by friend and employee, Nicole Jem.
‘Downtown SLO is in a transitional phase’
Since opening, business at the downtown San Luis Obispo location has been slower than Bodine initially hoped — but she’s hoping it will pick up once students return to Cal Poly this fall.
“We’re in a cool location, but we opened really quickly and people just don’t know we’re here,” Bodine said.
Still, Bodine is optimistic and says the business climate is “always changing.”
“The downtown SLO area is in a transitional phase,” she said. “A lot of empty spaces are just now getting filled from all the closures during the pandemic. Businesses are trying to figure out how to recover from that.”
The Dough Connection is open from noon to 7 p.m. on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and from noon to 8 p.m. on Saturday and Sundays. For more information, call 805-439-1803 or visit its website at the-dough-connection.square.site.
You can also follow The Dough Connection on Instagram or Facebook.
This story was originally published August 31, 2023 at 11:00 AM.
