Maurice Lenell Cookies

Hey Chicagoans!
There’s GOOD NEWS for us Maurice Lenell cookie lovers! A NEW store called The Chicago Cookie Store — located at 3829 N. Harlem Ave. — just south of Irving Park Rd. has opened and are STILL open as of Nov 1^st, 2014.
Not ONLY do they have Maurice Lenell cookies, but many other Chicago and hard-​to-​find favourites — from Fannie Mae Candies, Matt’s Cookies, Oke-​E-​Doke popcorn and much more. They’re open 9 — 6 every day. They also take orders on their website
and their phone number is (773) 777‑9555
So stop cryin’ and stock up!
… and for the guy who said that Maurice Lenell cookies had a «mass produced cheap look and taste to them» — let me tell you, at the original factory, they were *anything* but «mass produced» as the Maurice Lenell company was KNOWN for doing things «old school» via an assembly line — which in part led to the company filing bankruptcy and closing its doors to its original factory.

I have more to say about the experience of going to the store than I do about the cookies themselves. Watching the cookies on the conveyor belt while being made and trying all the varieties of broken cookie bits they would have sitting out for free was pretty exciting as a kid.
Though they have dozens of varieties, all the cookie flavors taste nearly alike to me.

WOW! I literally drove by today and had to back track because I thought I had passed the place up; my annual visit before Xmas will be no more, I missed the news that ML was closing/​is closed… now that I think about it, I received a ML holiday cookie brochure in the mail a few weeks ago.
My favorite? The chocolate chip.
We go a long way back… use to sell ML cookies and Mama Tish Italian Ice back in the 80s at our infamous basement candy store.

I, like many others, am not a fan of their cookies — they are hard and kind of tasteless, but make good weapons!
However, I will be sad to see them close as it’s another sign of the passing years. Many a day was spent after school at the local roller rink and then to get some samples from the cookie factory, while looking for hot guys in Norridge.

I loved ML cookies, pinwheels for dunking in milk, Almond for dunking in coffee. I will truely miss them :(
RIP Maurice Lenell!

My thoughts about the cookies aside (which I can’t disagree with Mike, Patty, etc. on, other than a handful of their cookie varieties), and love for their alluring aroma, I was a fan of coming here once in a real great while for their ridiculously great pricing of their bulk cookie packages. Not to mention, also the fact that numerous samples always tempted anyone who entered its doors.
At least I have heard ML will stay in business, albeit the fact that were bought out by a company in Ohio and likewise moved headquarters there, and moved cookie production to Michigan City. I will be crossing my fingers for a cooky comeback and watching to see if they do decide to open an outlet store somewhere in the Chicago area, if only for the fact I was a fan of their pricing, and heh, seemingly only nibble on them at Christmastime. Shame to know this landmark will soon be leveled, along with the Norridge Theater, for yet another strip center/​big box shopping center.

The three stars are more for the wonderful smell that wafted down Harlem from the factory. I, like Mike O., was not a huge fan of the cookies, but, having grown up on the North side, ate plenty of them as a kid. Not my cup of tea as an adult. Still, it is sad to see a piece of Chicago area history reduced to a probable condo or strip mall, about all that exsists on Harlem now.

Closing tomorrow according to TV news. This rounds out my «death triangle» of reviews: Krispy Kreme-​Chicago Rush-​Maurice Lennell.
While I know people have nostalgic memories, I never was crazy about their trans-​fat laden cookies. The cookies always had this mass-​produced cheap look and taste which never appealed to me. Still, it was a landmark on Harlem Avenue as far as I’m concerned.

I am heartbroken that Maurice Lenell has closed. HEARTBROKEN.
When I was a kid, my dad used to get a tin of these cookies every year at the police department’s holiday party. When he brought them home my siblings and I used to fight over them — I loved the chocolate, the yummy ones that looked like a yin-​yang (no idea what they’re called), and just the plain ones with sprinkles. Chocolate chip? No thanks. The ones with the jelly? DEAD TO ME.
Suddenly the police department stopped giving them out. My parents tried the switcheroo with nasty butter cookies — like I wouldn’t notice. (And to this day, I still get a tin of butter cookies for Christmas, despite me telling them they’re GROSS.)
I sort of gave up on ever having these cookies again. Fast forward about ten years, I’m all grown up and living in Chicago, and I’m at the ghetto Walgreens down the street. There, on the shelf in front of me is a familiar sight. Could it be? Yes, yes it was. My heart filled with joy, and eating those cookies was like being a kid on Christmas all over again.
But now ML is closed, and I shall never have them again. I never even made it to the actual store. I can’t even remember the last time I had their cookies — had I known it was the last time, I would have said a proper goodbye. But, *sniff*, I’ll always have the memories… and the closet full of tins in my dad’s basement which I’m sure will be left to me in the will…

I am still heartbroken that they’re closing.
There is nothing better than walking in and having the smell of freshly baked cookies meet your nose, and nothing more special than watching the cookies come off of the machines.
Plus, you can’t beat the bags of broken cookies.
A favorite of Chicago, these cookies have always been something special at every family event. I can only hope that the pinwheels find their way onto a shelf at Jewel in one way or another.

I am soooooo sad! I just got the news that the M.L. is closing next year!
So I must add a review and try to spread the word before it’s too late!!!
The first time my Dad took me to the M.L. I was about six.
I thought the oven belts filled with hundreds of cookies were the coolest thing… not to mention the aroma. Oh my!
Going there now as adult, always brings bake, oh I mean back, good memories.
They have delicious sugar-​free cookies also (which as an adult) are needed.
But my true favorites are the Butter cookies and the «gourmet» chocolate-​chip macadamia cookies.
My son-​in law once told me that his favorite cookies are the Pinwheels (he also had good memories of his father bringing him there) .
I would buy him a huge box of pinwheels every time they would come to visit (he’s in the army, stationed in Savannah) .
He became so spoiled that after the hello-​hugs-​and-​kisses were done he would look in the kitchen for the red & white box!
So now he is serving over in Iraq and in one of his goodie boxes I included the biggest box of Pinwheels they make.
He sent me pictures of «the boys» with the cookies over there.
*Heart strings tug.

Oh, wow — I miss Maurice Lenell cookies almost as much as I miss kolacky from Vesecky’s in Cicero/​Berwyn.
When I was growing up, I can’t remember any event (parent’s company party, museum special occasion, etc.) that offered cookies that did not have these yummy treats. It was just a matter of course — like having Danish Butter Cookies in the big, round tin in the winter.
I am glad to hear that they are offering the bags of rejects again — before the factory burned down in the 80’s, my dad would bring home a bag of them whenever he was in the area. After they rebuilt, it seemed like they stopped having them for a long time.
I’ll have to ask my parents to send me some.

i work across the street from a crematorium. though they’re technically not supposed to bake anyone during daylight hours, every so once in awhile you’ll catch a waft of something rancid only to look up and find smoke rising out their stack. it’s gross. after coughing up the residual gaseous remains of another one gone, i can only hope it was a former genius intellectually osmosified through my nose.
maurice lenell, on the other hand, bakes cookies. if i take harlem in the morning, all windows roll down in effort to stick as much scrumcilious sugary scent to my inner snot as possible, in hopes i’ll catch the occasional whiff of it throughout the day.
can’t remember the last time i actually ate one of their cookies, but the aroma alone is worth their being there. i wish the crematorium used maurice’s recipe.

If you live in the area, like we do, a cold winter morning will bring whiffs of vanilla through the air. Credit it all to Maurice Lenell Cookies on Harlem. The factory stills grinds out them cookies that grandma used to serve with tea, but now you can scam a BIG bag for under two bucks of «orphans» and not-​quite-​perfect cookies. Ask at the counter and if you’re lucky enough to have a friendly lady there who knows what she’s doing, you can ask if they’re the fresher ones. I mean, three pounds of Maurice Lenell for a buck seventy five? Pour ‘em into a big bowl at parties and reward the office with cookies. Enjoy!
You’ll be walking distance frrom the Norridge theaters: a multiplex that will be torn down soon. Walk north to the new Eisenhower Library (beginning in December, 2007), a multi-​million dollar project that will offer refuge, coffee and a fireplace.

I’ve grown up on these cookies. They are a sacred cookie tradition.
Are there better cookies out there? You betch’ya! However, Maurice Lenell is the only local cookie factory I know of, and who am I to not support a local business?
These are the cookies you toss down with either a cup of coffee or milk while relaxing with close friends.

Although the cookies are bland it is still a Chicago tradition to eat these. Since nearly everyone in Chicago grew up on these it’s custom for someone like myself to actually enjor these almost tasteless cookies. If you’re not from the area you probably won’t enjoy these just like some of you don’t enjoy Chicago’s deep dish pizza which we’re actually famous for. Either way I’m talking about cookies not pizza’s…that’s for another review at another time.

They seemed to taste much better when I was a kid… now it’s like chomping on a crunchy disk of Crisco. My husband loves them because they are sugar, flour and fat. If I’m gonna fuck with my blood sugar, it better be on something good… and these just aren’t worth it.
**UPDATE**
For years, I have hated Maurice Lennell cookies, ugh! Me? Eat one of THOSE? I’d rather die. However, I feel obligated to update my review and give additional stars.
My office received a Maurice Lennell gift tin for the holidays and I did comment loudly that I wouldn’t waste the calories on those disgusting things.
But, since my office is getting laid off, I had packed away all my toys and lunch fixings and brought them home, except for an expired can of raviolia from Aldi, which I ate, despite the fact that it tasted tinny and the sauce had congealed into a thick skin across the top of the raviolis.
To wash the taste of the expired ravioli from my mouth, I reluctantly resorted to the cookies.
Oh my god, I have never tasted such deliciousness in my life… I felt like Squidward finally eating the krabby patty he claimed to detest.
What happened? Why do they taste so good now? Maybe it’s because they are fresh and crunchy and I’m used to getting the stale, greasy ones.
Oh shit, I am munching them as I write, I have easily eaten twenty cookies and I’m going back for more.
I love Krabby Patties!

Listen up folks, cookies. Plural for «cooky» — a word nearly as cute as my infant son’s little buttcheeks. It makes me insane.
Every Maurice Lenell cooky is slightly stale right out of the oven. I don’t know how they get them that way, but they’ve been stale, yet delicious, for as long as I can remember.
It’s a Chicago thing — we looove them. No SFer would survive after eating a cooky like this one.

Yummy Cookies!
My favorite are the Pinwheels. The cookies are always fresh local stores. I can only imagine how good they are right from the factory. I like driving by and the scent of a freshly baked cookie fills the car.

Here is the place where they make the Maurice Lenell cookies that you find in local grocery stores. Their longtime logo is still the kid inside the cookie jar. I like their pinwheel cookies the best.