At the New York City-based bakery Best Damn Cookies, cookies are more than a comfort food—they’re a conversation starter. With unique flavor profiles and ingredients like cardamom, nori, and roasted corn, to name a few, Chef Dave Dreyfus and co-owner Mo Sahoo hope to spark connection and convey the deeper meaning baked into each treat.
“When you give someone a cookie, it’s easy to start a conversation or make people feel good,” said Dave, a former fine-dining chef who started the baking business in the pandemic. “[I] feel the incredible inspiration from all these different communities and different people [in New York City]. And that’s a big part of the story of Best Damn Cookies. It’s a conversation.”
Storytelling has always been foundational to the Best Damn Cookies brand, from the stories Mo tells online about the people who’ve inspired each cookie to Dave’s personal story as a native New Yorker. Exploring the city’s diverse cultures and partnering with other chefs to tell those stories is especially important to Dave, who recently reconnected with his own culture after opening the bakery three blocks away from where his great-grandfather lived after immigrating to the United States.
“This journey has really made me look inward and see things that I’m really excited to explore from my own eastern European culture and cuisine,” he said. “And for my whole life, I was unsure of if it was that worthy of exploring. Did people want to know about it? For the longest time I thought: ‘Not really. What am I gonna make, matzo ball soup?’
“As time keeps going, I am more and more interested in articulating and showcasing my culture as well. Everybody’s perspective is inherently interesting, and we all deserve an opportunity to showcase where you’re from and who you are.”
Below, Dave and Mo share how they bake storytelling into their business. Take these three easy steps to showcase your own story and identity through your small business branding.
1. Tell a story through your product or service menu
The detail in your menu should be as robust and engaging as your business—whether you’re selling gourmet cookies or auto repair services. Instead of simply listing off items, think of your menu as an opportunity to educate your customers about the story and value of each product.
Borrowing a term typically used in the fashion industry, Mo and Dave created a “Cookie Lookbook” on their website to offer a peek at all of their offerings. When you click on a cookie, you see not only an ingredient list, but also a description of how chef Dave achieves each flavor and texture—for example, for the Levante cookie, he “incorporated dark tahini to maintain a softer texture with great aroma” and “added the finest Italian espresso to add bitter notes with depth.”
You also get the story behind each cookie, including the chef, life experiences, regions, and cultures that served as inspiration for the recipe. Providing context and history about each recipe’s background helps Best Damn Cookies stay true to their mission of authentic storytelling.
Mo said: “When we talk about [our menu], it’s important for us to talk about [the people behind it] specifically. Every cookie we made, every story we told, we talked to the person [who inspired us] first. We asked them, ‘Hey, what do you want to say? What is important about your culture?’ And then we really tried to do something toward that.”
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2. Spark connections with creative displays and decor
At Best Damn Cookies’s brick and mortar, signature ingredients are displayed in the glass showcase along with the cookies, as if they’re rare gems at the jewelers—because they’re that valuable to the brand. Drawing from his fine-dining background, Dave chooses and sources each ingredient intentionally. Plus, many of them have a detailed backstory, such as the heirloom corn and chile de arbol in the Pinole cookie (inspired by the chefs at Sobre Masa, who hosted Dave and Mo in their kitchen when their pop-up business first launched).
As Dave and Mo found, refreshing your brick and mortar or retail floor with creative displays and signage is another way to spark conversations with customers and keep them entertained through their buying journey.
In the upscale food hall where Best Damn Cookies is located, the display gets customers excited about their experience and helps the bakery stand out from the competition, according to Yelp’s Brooklyn Community Manager and Yelp Elite reviewer Morlene C.
“It’ll make you think of the ingredients that are going into the cookies,” Morlene said. “Usually there’s a smiling face behind the counter. There’s music playing in the background. Sometimes they offer samples, and then the only question you’re left to wonder is, ‘Which one do I try first?’”
3. Start conversations on social media
Mo uses Best Damn Cookie’s social media to tell stories of the people who inspire them—from their staff to their favorite chefs and influencers. Most recently, Best Damn Cookies collaborated with New York City food content creator Justin Wu to launch a cookie inspired by his Taiwanese-American roots.
While Best Damn Cookie’s grid is full of well-lit product shots, Mo said he sees the most success when he focuses on engagement, not aesthetics. He urges business owners to experiment with the social aspect of social media: using your online platforms to reply to customers, scout public relations opportunities, or DM potential collaborators and partners.
“[Social media is] just trying to replicate how you talk to people,” Mo said. “The more aesthetic our photos became, the less I talked about things we cared about. The less I talked to people, our rates went down. I would sit there and go, ‘What is going on?’ And [then] I realized, I’m not social. I’m just media. If you’re not talking to someone, if you’re not using it to talk to people, if you’re just posting chocolate chip cookies, no one cares. If you’re talking to someone, they care.”
One of those crucial conversations happened with Morlene, Brooklyn’s community manager. Mo reached out to Morlene on social media after meeting her early in Best Damn Cookie’s journey, and the two connected over the brand’s passion for storytelling. “I definitely believe that food tastes better when you know the story behind the creation,” Morelene wrote in her review. “So if you can spare some time, stop by the bakery at the market line below Essex Market and ask Mo and Dave how they conceptualize each item.”
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Photos of Best Damn Cookies on Yelp
These lessons come from an episode of Behind the Review, Yelp & Entrepreneur Media’s weekly podcast. Listen below to hear more from Mo, Dave, and Morlene, or visit the episode page to read more, subscribe to the show, and explore other episodes.
The information above is provided for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice and may not be suitable for your circumstances. Unless stated otherwise, references to third-party links, services, or products do not constitute endorsement by Yelp.