The Thickest Cookies In The Bay Finally Have A Permanent Home

A “pudge” at Batch 22. | Maggie T Photography

Celebrated Batch 22 Bakery will open its brick-and-mortar location in Los Gatos on May 15

If you’re into extra thick chocolate chip cookies — as wide as your palm, as thick as a book — your day has arrived. Fan favorite Batch 22 Bakery is finally opening its first brick-and-mortar storefront in Los Gatos on May 15, with a few soft opening events rolling out before then.

For the past five years, these heavyweight contenders were exclusively available for pickup or delivery a few days a week, inspiring a cult following across the Bay Area. With this new location Batch 22 will be able to bake a lot more, stay open seven days a week, and offer delivery on demand. The “pudges,” as the cookies are known to their fans, at long last have a good home, and it’s a super cute butter-yellow shop that already smells outstanding. “Now that it looks immaculate, everybody is walking by the space, checks in, and is like, ‘Can we buy cookies?’” says co-owner Lawrance Combs.

The cookie delivery darling began in 2020, when baker Amy Wong and partner Combs started a cottage bakery at home during the pandemic. Wong is a former marketer turned dough entrepreneur who fell in love with this cookie style on a trip to New York, and has been tinkering with recipes ever since. Combs pushed her to apply for a cottage license and runs the business side. Across the past five years, they’ve developed lots of different flavors and built up a brand. The logical next step was to open a brick-and-mortar bakery, to the alarm of Wong’s parents. “I had that classic Asian American dream where you work a nine to five for the rest of your life,” Wong says. “Doctor, lawyer, engineer, you know.”

But her dad’s worry is our gain. If you haven’t tried one of these cookies yet, pour a glass of milk, here’s the refresher. The pudges weigh in at six ounces, easily triple the size of your everyday cookie. They’re “big, beautiful cookies, like the size of your palm,” Wong explains. “They have crisp edges and almost melty centers.” The opening menu will feature half a dozen pudges, “coming out of the gate with some of our heaviest hitters.” That includes classics like chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin, seasonal treats like strawberries and cream, and Asian American cravings like the purple ube dulcey. They will reveal one new flavor for the grand opening, a dark chocolate orange, featuring a fudgy dough and bright zest. And there will be a couple of drink options with hot coffee and cold milk.

The shop itself is sweet and simple in their signature butter yellow. Studio Banaa, the design firm that worked with Andytown, Kokak Chocolates, and Sanguchon, designed this first home for Batch 22. Combs describes the vision as “Japanese cartoonish feeling,” meaning clean, minimal, and fun for kids.

“We didn’t want every other coffee shop’s aesthetic,” Wong adds. “We wanted personality.”

On the left wall there’s a mural designed by artist Emily Cheng, a friend of Wong’s since they were seven years old, featuring a character dubbed “the potato chef.” Behind the case a custom wall looks like a massive cookie with a chomp taken out of it.

In a prime location in a shopping center, alongside a Boichik Bagels, Trader Joe’s, and a pilates studio, you’ve got a lot of carbs and needs covered. For the grand opening, Batch 22 will be handing out a few hundred mini totes to early customers, as well as running cookie giveaways on Instagram. They’re out of budget to do anything special for their fifth anniversary this May, but a permanent home for the pudges feels like a party.

Of course, the best chocolate chip cookie is a deeply personal matter, but if you live for thick cookies, this is the one. “I love how the name ‘pudge’ has really caught on,” Wong says. They were always obsessed with these “big fat cute cookies,” but wondered if people would get the concept. Only recently, Wong was running deliveries, and a customer dropped it like any other word in the dictionary. “I rang the doorbell, and she said, ‘Oh, it must be my pudges!’”

Batch 22 Bakery (15466 Los Gatos Blvd, #113, Los Gatos) debuts on May 15, and will be open Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday 12 to 5 p.m.