FAT Brands Brings Great American Cookies To Temecula Mall

TEMECULA, CA — Mall staple Great American Cookies has arrived in Temecula.

The purveyor of sweets owned by FAT Brands opened July 11 at Promenade Temecula, 40820 Winchester Road. The store in mall space #2340 is sandwiched between Adore Boutique and Hot Topic and offers gourmet cookies, cookie cakes, Double Doozies (icing sandwiched between two cookies) and a variety of brownies.

The dessert chain’s claim to fame — creating the Original Cookie Cake — dates back to 1977 when the first store opened under the name Original Great American Chocolate Chip Cookie Company in Atlanta's Perimeter Mall.

Business took off and in 1985 the company was renamed Great American Cookie Company and later shortened to Great American Cookies because, well, there is more to life than just chocolate chips.

According to the website of company co-founder Michael Coles, that original Georgia store was a bit of a fluke. The story goes this way: Coles, who worked in the apparel industry during the 1970s, was visiting a San Diego mall when he spotted a cookie store packed with customers. He knew nothing about the food industry but was intrigued by the store's brisk pace of business.

After asking a lot of questions and doing some research, Coles determined he could make his mother’s chocolate chip cookies for 6 cents a piece and sell the little round devils for 30 cents a pop.

"I was dumbfounded," the website reads.

(Today, a 1-dozen box of the company's Original Chocolate Chip Cookies sells for $35.99.)

"After my California trip, I decided to leave the clothing business and open a cookie store in Atlanta. My partner, Arthur Karp, and I had absolutely no experience selling food and only $8,000 to invest in this new enterprise. We were undercapitalized and faced several national competitors selling the same product. Interest rates were high, inflation was soaring, and new businesses were closing in 1977 almost as fast as they could open their doors. We had every reason not to do this, but we did," the website continues.

It was a profitable gamble. In 1998 with sales reportedly over $100 million, Great American Cookies was sold to Mrs. Fields Famous Brands. Great American Cookies changed hands a few more times and in 2021 the chain was acquired by FAT Brands in a $442.5 million deal that also included Round Table Pizza, Hot Dog on a Stick, Marble Slab Creamery and Pretzelmaker.

The Promenade Temecula store is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Online ordering is available at Great American Cookies and sweets can also be shipped. For more information and to see the Great American Cookies menu, visit greatamericancookies.com/menu.