Whimsical cookies and ‘bougie’ cinnamon rolls coming to new Tacoma bakery

When Adriana Shaffer was asked in middle school to pick a job she’d most want to find herself in someday, she said baker. The Port Orchard native then “interned” at the late Hello, Cupcake on Pacific Avenue in downtown Tacoma. She was 12. Now she’s 23, and she’s opening a bakery of her own just up the hill with her fiancé, Jaxon Marquardt.

Cove’s Bakery hopes for a summer opening at 766 St. Helens Ave., which has been empty since the Original House of Donuts closed in 2020. It’s one retail component of a city-supported redevelopment of the five-story Rialto Apartment and two-story Exley Apartment buildings at 9th and Broadway as well as the multi-unit structure at 9th and St. Helens. Eternal Soul Bowl is slated for the old Candy Market at 767 Market St., and next to the new bakery, Palmerston Cellars, a Tacoma-based winery, will open its first tasting room.

Farmers market regulars might recognize the “Cove” part of the name and think, “Cookies.”

Last summer, Shaffer and Marquardt, 27, became frequent faces at Tacoma’s Broadway market with their bubblegum-pink tent, from which they sold jumbo cookies in classic (brown butter chocolate chip), nostalgic (such as Samoa, s’mores, animal cookie) and whimsical (strawberry-Oreo, almond croissant, Biscoff cookie butter) flavors, handed over to future fans in corresponding pink-and-white-striped bags. They also sold at the Bremerton Farmers Market and their hometown event in Port Orchard, as well as the occasional night market.

The couple met while working at Moctezuma’s, mostly in Gig Harbor. Shaffer was a hobby baker honing her recipes, but the cookies needed other bellies. She would bring them to coworkers, and Marquardt started taking them to his other job at the Bremerton shipyard.

“Next thing you know, guys are asking, ‘Can we buy some?’” recalled Marquardt. “‘You should do something with these cookies!’” said Shaffer.

So they went through the process of applying for a cottage-food permit through the Washington State Department of Agriculture. Their home kitchen — located on a “CV” road that inspired the business name — was inspected and approved, and then they applied to area markets. In preparation for their first big event in Port Orchard, they bought hundreds of dollars of ingredients, and Shaffer spent hours browning butter — a signature move — to bake off 200 cookies.

“Gosh, we were so nervous,” said Marquardt, wondering why his partner insisted on buying the more expensive chocolate and salt.

“You can’t skip on the chocolate,” Shaffer replied.

They sold out before the day was done, and the batches grew from there.

I first tried the flagship cookie, plus a Biscoff and one inspired by strawberry shortcake with a Little Debbie snack in waiting, last spring, skeptical of the pink branding. Yes, Cove’s pink style calls to mind Crumbl, the chain with controversially soft and sweet cookies in constantly rotating flavors that propelled a hasty franchise expansion that has perhaps plateaued. Shaffer, though, knows what she’s doing. Her attention to detail feels almost implausible: How could these cookies be so round? So flat and soft and crunchy and chewy in every place you want it to be?

This chocolate chip cookie, finished with Maldon sea salt, is serious: perfectly round, the butter obviously browned, the Ghirardelli chocolate chunks meticulously placed in each quadrant, the Maldon flakes a-flutter.

Despite more than 100 flavors in the Rolodex, the chocolate chip is “the winner for just about everybody,” said Shaffer.

For market sales, each cookie (save for a box of a dozen minis) is vacuum-sealed in an individual wrapper with explicit instructions: Consume within three days. Ideally, blitz in the microwave for a 5-15 seconds or pop in an oven for just 3-5 minutes. They freeze nicely, but don’t dare unseal the wrapper; to defrost, let it return to room temperature.

Cinnamon rolls, breads & ice cream, too

Shaffer and Marquardt realized early in their mobile bakery adventure that a storefront could work. The state’s cottage permit, while a convenient and low-barrier entry-point, caps annual sales at $35,000.

“Selling out is great, but it almost hurts to be kneecapped,” said Shaffer.

The cottage deal also forbids ingredients like fresh fruit and icing that should be kept cold. She has cookie recipes that incorporate both. At the bakery, Cove’s will add variations of banana bread (think fruits and swirls and crumble toppings) and “bougie” cinnamon rolls with cream-cheese frosting (“a non-negotiable”) cut straight from the tray.

There won’t be coffee (plenty of nearby shops specialize in the stuff, they said), but there will be New Zealand-style ice cream, a fabulous blend of hard-pack ice cream macerated to-order with fresh fruit in a unique machine that churns it down through a cone. The resulting texture leans toward soft-serve or custard, bursting with the juiciness of the chosen fruit. (Cove’s will be the only place to find this trendy treat in Tacoma; the nearest shops are in Seattle or the first in Washington, Welly’s in Port Angeles.)

As Shaffer and Marquardt began the search for a commercial space, they saw an opportunity for a cookie-focused bakery in Tacoma and loved the idea of being in the heart of downtown, potentially with evening hours. While toting their wares from their pink van to the farmers market most Thursdays in 2025, they began eyeing the corner unit of the Rialto project. It was an ideal setup for the young couple, especially for the boost of having some infrastructure upgrades covered by the developer, Great Expectations and Urban Black, a Seattle-based company that focuses on mixed-use affordable housing and commercial projects with community-focused businesses.

The curvy pink lettering of the logo was officially affixed to the windows in mid-February. As construction continues toward a hopeful late-summer debut, find Cove’s Cookies at the same mix of markets this summer plus Gig Harbor.

Cove’s Bakery

• 766 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma, instagram.com/covescookies
• Details: new cookie-focused bakery opening in downtown Tacoma, also with banana breads, cinnamon rolls and New Zealand-style ice cream — target opening late summer 2026
• Follow on Instagram for updates on summer farmers market schedule and other pop-ups

This story was originally published February 28, 2026 at 5:15 AM.