You don't need an excuse to eat chocolate chip cookies, but an LA cookie crawl gives you one anyway

For one weekend only, fans of Los Angeles-made chocolate chip cookies can engage in the cookie-focused version of a bar crawl, patronizing five established cookie purveyors as part of a quest to get even more cookies.

The “1st Annual Cookie Crawl” is a partnership by Milkfarm (Eagle Rock), Proof Bakery Co-Op (Atwater Village), Friends & Family (Silver Lake), Modu Cafe (Highland Park) and Valerie (Echo Park), all independently owned businesses.

You can go to any one of those locations, pick up a punch card, get a punch for a cookie, and subsequently get punched for getting cookies from the other locations, too. Drop it off at your preferred location by Sunday afternoon for a chance to win more of that store's cookies plus gift certificates from the others.

Why we celebrate the chocolate chip

The crawl honors this year’s National Chocolate Chip Day, on May 15, not to be confused with National Chocolate Day in October, or National Cookie Day in December, or National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day in August.

You can appreciate chocolate chips and the cookies they’re baked into without any historical knowledge, but just in case you are curious: While LAist couldn’t find a verified origin of National Chocolate Chip Day, internet records show the day nominally celebrates Ruth Graves Wakefield, the baker behind Toll House cookies. Cookie history sleuths dispute that Wakefield actually created the modern chocolate chip, but she did popularize them. (Earlier versions of chocolate chips include chocolate-coated molasses.)

Why you should participate in a chocolate chip cookie crawl

Milkfarm owner Leah Park developed the idea for this crawl years ago after talking with Proof founder Na Young Ma about how popular each shop's cookies are. Park said she wanted to do something collaborative, to encourage people to go out and try new things.

“I was starting to get it all together. We did the prototype for the punch card,” Park said. That was in early 2020; that first cookie crawl became another opportunity stifled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“And so everything just got put on hold. And I had the prototype punchcard that I made on my corkboard in my office since 2020,” Park said. “And I just kept looking at it, and finally one day I was like, ‘OK, I just need to hurry up and do this.’ And then it launched this year. We finally did it.”

Atwater Village resident Kenneth Rudnicki filled the majority of his card Friday morning.

“I would love more punchcards in L.A.,” he said. “I think it's a really good way for other businesses to get introduced to people who maybe wouldn't know them. And … it's fun to sort of have a task like this to do.” He bought several cookies to slice apart and share with friends.

And I did that too: As the senior editor of our esteemed LAist Education Team, I invited our available education reporters — in the name of hard-hitting journalism, of course — to sample all the cookies I brought back. You’ll see our notes below, with thoughts from me and:

• Julia Barajas,
• Sabrina Sanchez, early childhood engagement producer
• Elly Yu, early childhood reporter

Also, this list isn’t a ranking; one aspect of this crawl is that each cookie shows off how a baking classic can be transformed into something unique. And that means you can trade takes with other people about what makes a cookie great.

Let's eat cookies

A Proof Co-op chocolate chip cookie.

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Proof Bakery Co-op

Proof staff told me that they use Valrhona chocolate for a product that, as our tasters describe, is an ideal chocolate chip cookie — “crunchy on the outside, but, like, really soft and, like, buttery on the inside. The chocolate’s the right amount of sweet, and then you got the salt that's really nice.” We paired it with hot drip coffee, an excellent companion.

A Friends & Family chocolate chip cookie.

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Friends & Family (Silver Lake Outpost)

The original Friends & Family is in Hollywood, but this branch adjacent to Burgers Never Say Die also offers the bakery’s rye chocolate chip cookie, which staff members said is made with rich TCHO chocolate. Our tasters noted the earthiness of the rye — one said it comes across almost gingery. Despite the crinkly outside edge, it’s a bit chewy, and takes a light touch with the chocolate. We suggest pairing it with milk.

A Valerie chocolate chip cookie.

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Valerie Echo Park

Valerie is tucked into a cozy nook of Echo Park businesses set away from the bustle of Sunset Blvd. This weekend’s crawl features the Durango cookie, which our tasters describe as quite sweet (it uses milk chocolate) and nutty. This cookie will test your thoughts on texture; personally, I liked how the toasted almonds contributed to it. We also thought it might work well as a blondie.

A Milkfarm chocolate chip cookie.

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Ross Brenneman

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Milkfarm

Milkfarm owner and pastry chef-turned-cheesemonger Leah Park says her cookie was the result of a lot of trial and error when the store opened in 2014.

“How to get the oven the right temperature, and what size cookie, then the chips to use — we even taste-tested salt,” Park said. “We literally had different salt that we put side by side, and we ate salt to see what kind of salt we wanted to use on the cookie.” (They now use Jacobsen's.)

And that effort shines through: Milkfarm was a hit with our tasters (and several other colleagues who managed to snag a piece) — crispy edges, ample salt, thick ("but it's not cakey"), and just the right amount of chocolate (Ghirardelli). I haven't been a regular at this shop, but thanks to this crawl, I suspect it will be a new favorite stop on the way to work.

Park suggested pairing the cookie with a versatile cheese, many of which are also available from Milkfarm.

A Modu black sesame dark chocolate chip cookie.

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Ross Brenneman

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Modu Cafe

I usually stroll Highland Park for the compact array of shops on York Blvd. stretching from Kumquat on the west end to The Hermosillo bar on the east end. But head a little farther east to reach Modu, a bright, spacious pastry shop featuring flavors popular in Korean cooking.

Their soft, black sesame dark chocolate cookie stood out to our tasters for how the sesame brings a nutty complement; it's not packed with chocolate, so our crew recommends taking big bites to guarantee you get the full range of flavor. Pair it with the first-rate Modu Latte.

You can hit all five stops in under an hour, but budget some extra time to walk around a bit and enjoy what else the neighborhoods offer.

Also, while this particular crawl has been in the works for quite some time, it inspired another option this weekend in West L.A.:

• Clementine, 1751 Ensley Avenue, Century City
• Fat + Flour, 11739 W. Washington Boulevard, Culver City
• Lei’d Cookies, 8588 Washington Boulevard, Culver City
• Petitgrain Boulangerie, 1209 Wilshire Boulevard, Santa Monica 
• The Very Best Cookie in the Whole Wide World, 2625 South Robertson Boulevard, Los Angeles

Reporters Julia Barajas and Elly Yu, and engagement producer Sabrina Sanchez, contributed to this story.