Lawrenceville's annual "Joy of Cookies" cookie tour is back on Butler Street, uniting local business with sweet teeth around the city.
"Tour" may be too structured a term for what the event really is, though: It's less of a guided excursion, and more of a four-day long, neighborhood-wide festival that celebrates treats of the culinary and consumer kinds.
The cookie tour is about providing a mall alternative to holiday shoppers. Participating shops, galleries and eateries include established Lawrenceville staples (Piccolo Forno, Arsenal Bowling Lanes, Divertido), as well as newer establishments (Espresso a Mano, Wildcard, Ambiance Boutique). Each of the 21 participating shops will feature a different cookie baked by Bernadette Ogurchak of Heaven's Scent Pastries in Forest Hills.
The tour is also about promoting Lawrenceville's business district as an eating, drinking and shopping destination.
"Many people come to the neighborhood for the cookie tour, and then come back to their favorite places," says Nadia Diboun with the Lawrenceville Corporation. "Over the past 10 years, we've seen an increase of sales during the cookie tour. It promotes the neighborhood regionally."
The tour began in 1997 as a holiday open house at Jay Design Soaps & Gifts, and has grown to a business district-wide event that organizers anticipate will draw more than 3,000 attendees.
The tour occurs Thurs., Dec. 3 through Sun., Dec. 6. Special events on Saturday include a trolley running the expanse of Butler Street from 34th to 55th Streets, as well as the Cookie Mall bake sale 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at St. Augustine's Church, at 37th and Butler Streets. The bake sale, organized by the Lawrenceville Rotary, benefits local community groups, including Friends of the Lawrenceville Library, Lawrenceville United and St. John Neumann School.
The Joy of Cookies Cookie Tour is sponsored by the Lawrenceville Corporation, the Mainstreets Pittsburgh program, PNC Bank, UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh City Paper, Lawrenceville Rotary and the Joy of Cookies Cookie Tour Planning Committee.
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Writer: Caralyn Green
Source: Nadia Diboun, Lawrenceville Corporation
Photograph courtesy of Nadia Diboun