Dirty Dough in west Lawrence is now serving up cookies that wrap around candy, ooze fudge and caramel, and have smaller cookies baked inside of them.
The name is not just a reflection of the elaborate treats themselves (which, yes, get messy). Dirty Dough aims to fight against a stigma that founder Bennett Maxwell attributed to social media: the need for everything to be perfect and look perfect.
“Our product is all about ‘what’s on the inside matters most,’ and ‘life is messy, and that’s OK,’” Maxwell said in a June interview.
Mitchell Krasnican, owner of the Lawrence franchise of Dirty Dough, said that “After reading about the franchise, their mission statement and the things that they stand for, and the simplicity of the concept, it was just something I got interested in.”
Krasnican’s Lawrence store, at Bob Billings Parkway and Wakarusa Drive, was the first to have its soft open, and he is also planning to expand the rapidly growing franchise to Topeka and Manhattan.
The menu includes six signature cookies that are available all the time at Dirty Dough, Krasnican said. Those include stuffed chocolate chip, brookie, the reverse, gluten-free oatmeal raisin, raspberry toaster tart and cookies ‘n’ creme.
So far, the cookies ‘n’ creme, a vanilla cookie “loaded with Oreo chunks, white chocolate chips and stuffed with a creme filling,” and the brookie, a “caramel filled chocolate chip cookie inside a brownie cookie with a caramel drizzle on top,” have been quite popular, Krasnican said.
In addition to the signature six, the store changes up two weekly special cookies every Friday.
The current weekly specials are candy bar — “a classic cookie filled with Kit-Kat, Butterfinger and Reese’s peanut butter cups, then topped with fudge frosting and a Kit-Kat” — and scotcheroo, a “vanilla brown sugar cookie with butterscotch, peanut butter chips, and rice krispies. Filled with a peanut butter and caramel fudge.”
Krasnican said the special cookies that do really well will rotate back onto the menu throughout the year as fan favorites.
They also have the Dirty Scoop and the Dirty Shake: cookies with ice cream, or turned into a milkshake.
Grand opening set for Nov. 17
The store has been in a soft opening phase since Oct. 23, and “we’re still getting the hang of things,” Krasnican said. But Dirty Dough will host a grand opening on Friday, Nov. 17.
Doors open at noon to commence the celebration, and everyone who stops by the grand opening can get a free cookie, he said.
The store will be open and the celebration will continue until 10 p.m. that night. There will be giveaways, and they’ll raffle off tickets to the Sunflower Showdown — the KU vs. K-State football game, which will be the following day, Saturday, Nov. 18 (kickoff time is 6 p.m.). Raffle winners will be announced at 6 p.m. Friday.
Keep an eye out for updates, further details and weekly special cookies on the Lawrence store’s Facebook page, facebook.com/DirtyDoughLawrenceKansas.
The store’s current hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays, Krasnican said. It’s located in the strip mall at 1540 Wakarusa Drive. Dirty Dough is also available for delivery through DoorDash.
Note: This post was updated Nov. 16 to include the latest info about the Nov. 17 grand opening event.
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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