Crowds Are Lining Up for Hours for This Sweet Treat

When DŌ first opened its doors in New York City a few weeks ago, closet lovers of raw cookie dough rejoiced. A whole shop devoted entirely to that taboo, secret indulgence, usually only enjoyed in the privacy of your own home? How could this be?

Apparently, everyone's caught on to the craze. Raw cookie dough lovers, curious foodies, and tourists are lining up outside the shop from morning to night, waiting patiently for their taste of raw goodness. The average wait time is one to two hours, though on the weekends, the wait can be up to four hours, according to DŌ founder Kristen Tomlan.

"I always believed in the power of cookie dough but never did I expect such a national response to the concept," she said in an email to The Feast. "The past three weeks I’ve been overjoyed with the response and excited to see my vision and passion for cookie dough in the faces of our customers."

DŌ serves up about a dozen different flavors, available in a cup or cone, with or without toppings. Flavors include classics like chocolate chip (the shop's most popular) and sugar cookie, but also feature more unusual concoctions, like the "Heavenly" made with sugar cookie dough, Nutella, chocolate chips, caramel bits, and sea salt—Tomlan's personal favorite. "It’s the perfect combination of sweet and salty with a hint of chocolate crunch from the chips," she said.

If you can't handle the pure rawness, there are more traditional baked goods and other treats that incorporate raw dough, such as the brownie layered with cookie dough and chocolate ganache. (And don't worry, the raw dough is made with pasteurized eggs, so it won't make you sick—unless you OD on it, of course.)

The buzz has been overwhelmingly positive, but the long lines can be a deterrent.

DŌ now has "line managers" to help speed up the process, and Tomlan encourages customers to come early for shorter wait times. "Lately, we’ve been serving samples to our patient customers giving them a first taste at the dough even before entering the shop," she explained.

Of course, you could just buy a tube of cookie dough from the supermarket and call it a day. But then you wouldn't get to sink your teeth into this:

Or this:

Not this, either: