Two hours of waiting, $30 and nearly 21⁄2 pounds worth of cookies — was it worth it?
Gideon’s Bakehouse, an extremely popular sweets shop based out of Florida, opened its second location last January in Disney Springs, a mix of shops, restaurants and entertainment formerly known as Downtown Disney.
The store has exploded with popularity due to its “ingredient rich, from-scratch almost half-pound cookies that take over 24 hours to create.” Though its storefront doesn’t open until 10 a.m. each day, a line begins forming around 9 a.m., with a wait time of up to five hours.
On a recent family vacation at Disney World, I got the chance to try it and see if it’s worth the hype.
Not your typical bake shop
Gideon’s is not your typical bake shop — it’s got a Tim Burton-inspired design. My family and I were greeted by black double doors, ghoulish drawings and a large gray gargoyle perched on top of the roof — otherwise known as the guardian of Gideon’s.
Pretty spooky.
Once the line outside the store is a certain length, Gideon’s opens up its virtual queue that saves customers’ spots in line via text message. Seeing the line was wrapped around the building, I put my phone number on the waitlist right away.
I was told it would be a three-hour wait.
It was about 7 p.m., and my mom told me there was no way we would stick around until 10 p.m. for these cookies.
“We’ll see how you feel after dinner,” I told her.
Two hours passed. My family and I had eaten a dinosaur-themed dinner at T-Rex, attempted to make the Eiffel Tower out of colorful plastic bricks at the Lego store and tried on just about every possible pair of Mickey ears. I knew my time was almost up when my parents began checking their watches and giving each other “the look,” so I convinced them to just check and see where we were on the waitlist.
We walked until I spotted that famous gargoyle (he’s hard to miss). I checked in with a sullen-looking employee, dressed in all black, about my spot in line. She looked down at her iPad, and I saw a big green check on the screen.
Thank the cookie heavens — we were in!
The inside of the store was even creepier than the outside, but in a good way. I felt eyes watching me as ghostly doodles peered down at me from their frames. A line of flames caught my eye as it danced along the checkout counters, daring me to approach them.
Not your typical cookie
Each customer is limited to only six cookies per order. I ordered five of the seven available flavors:
- Original chocolate chip.
- Peanut butter crunch.
- Pistachio toffee chocolate chip.
- Triple chocolate chip.
- PB chocolate swirl (May limited edition).
My thoughts: You must like chocolate in order to enjoy these cookies. Every inch is covered with chocolate chips. Every. Single. Inch.
- While I do love chocolate, I will say it was a bit overpowering. I would have loved to taste more of the cookies’ bases. My mom is a self-proclaimed chocoholic, and even she tapped out after only a few bites.
- The cookies did not come warm. Granted, I got them at 9:30 p.m., but I was a bit disappointed, because everyone knows that cookies taste best fresh out of the oven. I later discovered I should have come during one of their “Hot Cookie Hours” to get the warm cookie I was looking for, because that’s when the bakery serves piping hot cookies (with vanilla ice cream on top!) between 2-3 p.m. and 7-8 p.m.
- The cookies are HUGE. Between my mom, dad, brother, sister, husband and I, the five cookies lasted us about three days.
- My family’s overall favorite flavor was, to my surprise, Pistachio toffee chocolate chip. Its flavor profile was the most diverse between the sweet chocolate and the saltiness of the pistachio. The crunch of the pistachio was a pleasant texture and contrasted nicely with the softer dough.
So, is it worth it? Sadly, I would say no. The cookies are yummy, but are they worth $6 and a three-hour wait? Hard to say. Save yourself the time and money and get equally delicious cookies from local places like Crumbl, Chip or Goodly Cookies.