Couple’s chance encounter with Mary’s Mountain Cookies led them to open their own such store in Fruita

Tim Harty, The Business Times

Justin Adis doesn’t eat sugar. He’s middle-aged, physically fit and wants to stay that way.

But Adis can make an exception every once in a great while, like he did in June when he and his wife, Tara Adis, went to Fort Collins for the wedding shower for their son, Jake Adis, and now daughter-in-law Kate.

The group went to a sushi restaurant, and upon leaving they noticed the Mary’s Mountain Cookies store next door. Tara said they thought: It’s there, and we’re here, so “let’s just all have fun. We’ve never been in one before, so we bought all sorts of cookies and ice cream.

“And Justin’s a diehard nutritionist, and he doesn’t ever let himself, you know, be able to partake in the sugar. He was like, ‘Well, it’s our son’s wedding,’ so he had it and was like, ‘What is this?’ He didn’t get a stomach ache. He felt light. And the ingredients were so different, because they’re not your traditional cookies, your traditional ingredients. “

Tara said they went back to Mary’s Mountain Cookies the next day, spoke to the manager and asked her, “What is this?” And she told them the story of Mary Johns, who opened the first Mary’s Mountain Cookies store in Fort Collins in 1986.

The answer to their simple question – What is this? – ultimately was Mary’s Mountain’s Cookies is Justin and Tara’s new business venture.

“We had been wanting to open a business in town,” Tara said. “We didn’t know what it was going to be. It turns out, it’s cookies.”

Justin and Tara contacted Mary Johns, went to Jake and Kate’s wedding in July, contacted Mary again, and …

“Here we are,” Tara said during an Oct. 31 interview, Day 5 of being open at 138 S. Park Square, Unit 103, in Fruita.

That’s just Store No. 1. They took over a lease as of Nov. 1 for a commercial unit in the Village Fair Plaza shopping center, 2691 Patterson Road, and plan to open a Mary’s Mountain Cookies store there within a couple months.

“Hopefully we’ll be open before Christmas on that one,” Tara said.

First, there’s buildout to do in the Village Fair unit, as Justin said they need to knock down a few walls, so they can implement the layout that all Mary’s Mountain Cookies stores use. 

Referring to the open concept of the Fruita store, Justin said, “As you can see, it’s a big open kitchen. There’s tall refrigerators, tall freezers. There’s butcher-blocked tabletops. There’s a gigantic 12-foot-long cookie case. The ovens. There’s a big mixer that weighs 800 pounds.

‘So it’s basically just building out a kitchen, you know, electrical, some plumbing.”

The reason for the open setup is it allows customers to see the staff making the baked goods.

“Everything is made on site,” Tara added.

Lots and lots of different cookies.

Mary Johns, who was at the store on Halloween, because she was in town to help Tara and Justin get the store ready, like she does for each new Mary’s Mountain Cookies store, said she has 600 or 700 different cookie recipes.

Tara and Justin won’t work their way through that many recipes, but they’ll have 24 different kinds of cookies – or a few other items such brownies and cinnamon rolls mixed in – each day in the case and a regular rotation of cookie recipes.

On Halloween, Justin said early in the afternoon they had made 300 cookies already that day, “and the day’s only half over. It’s just a constant production cycle of cookies fresh out of the oven.”

Justin said all of the cookies are made fresh every day, and “it’s real ingredients.” That means the blueberry oatmeal cookie has real blueberries in it. Orange lemon doodles have real orange and lemon.

Describing the style of cookies, Justin said the thing that makes Mary’s Mountain Cookies unique from others is the size of them.

“They’re very large, they’re thick, a lot of them have toppings on them,” he said. “These are thick and incredible.”

Some cookie creativity is allowed for customers who want an ice cream sandwich or an avalanche (two cookies and a layer of frosting between them) or a tornado (edible cookie dough mixed in with ice cream like a shake).

Mary’s Mountain Cookies can do custom orders such as a large cookie shaped like a football for a Super Bowl party.

They also make some gluten-free cookies.

Large groups or gatherings can get what they need, too. Tara said a bank picked up a box of 45 cookies earlier in the day on Halloween for a staff meeting.

“This week alone, we’ve put out maybe 25 dozen cookies for different organizations and parties in town,” Tara said.

They also can do special orders for people who want party trays, and they anticipate doing some catering.

“We have the ability to really do anything,” she said.

More About Mary’s Mountain Cookies 

Mary’s Mountain Cookies is located in Unit 103 at 138 S. Park Square in Fruita.

Justin and Tara Adis, owners of the Fruita location, said Mary’s Mountain Cookies is in a dozen states, and there are about 30 of them now, with some more to come, including one at Village Fair Plaza, 2691 Patterson Road, in Grand Junction, possibly before Christmas.

They added the stores are not franchises.

“Each one is independently owned,” Tara said. “Mary does not own the individual stores, and so each one has their own personality on it. Like, I think our Grand Junction store will have a different personality than this store. And so that’s what’s fun about it. The whole idea is to have the store match the vibe of the town it’s in.”

New careers in cookies

Justin and Tara Adis moved to Fruita from Carbondale, and they wanted to start a business together, which led to them opening Mary’s Mountain Cookies.

Justin said he retired from a 30-year automotive career in Carbondale, and Tara said she was a certified public accountant and financial advisor for 23 years until she retired “a while ago.” However, Tara said, “I got bored and became a Realtor,” so she’s still a Realtor for Coldwell Banker out of Carbondale.

The Mary’s Mountain Cookies stores are a new challenge, but also a venture they believe will allow them to enjoy life outside of work.

“Tara and I have a lot of energy, and we’ve got a lot of drive, and we wanted to do something else in this next chapter of our lives,” Justin said. “We were just looking for something fun to do, you know?”

He added, “It’s important for people to know that we live here in town. We’re locals. It’s a locally owned store, and we’ve always done our best to support local businesses, because we know how important that is.”

Plans for a couple more stores

Justin and Tara don’t plan to stop with the Fruita and Grand Junction locations of Mary’s Mountain Cookies.

“We’re talking about a third and fourth as well,” Justin said. “Those aren’t going to come about until next year, more than likely. It takes a lot to get one of these off the ground, so right now we’re just focused on launching Fruita successfully and then starting to dive in on the Grand Junction location. And then after that’s dialed in, then we’ll move toward locations three and four.”

More ways to get your cookies

Tara rattled off several different ways people will be able to get Mary’s Mountain Cookies aside from going to the store.

Online ordering is coming soon, she said, along with a social media presence to promote the business.

They will set up at farmers markets and festivals.

They eventually will have a three-wheel cookie bike “with a big, big cooler on the front,” going to populated places to draw attention and sell cookies, she said.

And there will be a cookie truck.

“So that’s coming, and then we’ll be at every event,” Tara said. “We’re really big into mountain biking. We’d like to be at all of the races at the trailheads, part of the hiking, trail-running venues. That’s our heart is those type of sports, skiing as well. “

Mary’s Mountain Cookies also wants to accumulate corporate accounts, such as banks, insurance companies, real-estate agencies. Tara said Mary’s Mountain Cookies can provide what those businesses need for customer gifts or staff meetings.

The latter is already happening and led Tara to say, “We’re staff cookies.”

People know the brand

Since opening the Fruita store on Oct. 27, the Adises have encountered a few people who are familiar with Mary’s Mountain Cookies.

For starters, Grand Junction has its share of people who went to Colorado State University in Fort Collins, where Mary’s Mountain Cookies originated.

“People that go to school in Fort Collins know Mary’s Mountain Cookies,” Tara said, “because they had them even 20, 30 years ago.”

Tara said people have asked her, “Are you guys the same as Mary’s Mountain Cookies in Fort Collins?” And she replies emphatically, “Yes, we are!”

She said a man who cleans rugs and linens for the Fruita store told her Mary’s Mountain Cookies catered their wedding in Sioux Falls, S.D. Then, a couple from Asheville, N.C., where there is a Mary’s Mountain Cookies, was driving through Fruita, saw the store sign, and they stopped to inquire, “Are you the same Mary’s Mountain Cookies as Asheville?”

“So there’s some national recognition with the logo and the concept and brand,” Tara said.