The Scoop on Rooster 14 Cookies

By Angela Milkie

Perhaps you’ve seen them – the large, ice cream scoop-shaped chocolate chip cookies in traditional glass jars sitting atop the counters of local Intown businesses.

Recognizable by the label depicting red and white stripes and a rooster silhouette, these cookies are reminiscent of times past. Rooster 14 Cookies are a half-pound of sweetness large enough to share with a friend or two (or hell, keep it all to yourself).

Nancy Portaleo is the founder and owner of the Rooster 14 Cookie Company. Originally served as a dessert when Nancy catered Atlanta events, the Rooster cookie was so popular, it became a company all its own. She spent 12 years perfecting the homemade taste and texture of the cookie from an old family recipe.

The name, Rooster 14, is inspired by Portaleo’s childhood home.  “I was a kid from the 1970s, and my mom had these silhouettes of roosters on the house,” she says. “Fourteen was part of our address.”

She wanted to recreate the feeling of her childhood through the logo design, which also includes red and white stripes modeled after a candy shop from her favorite movie, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. When you order a dozen of her cookies, which always come wrapped in old-fashioned parchment paper, you will find that a Rooster dozen is actually 14 cookies.

“Every day is an inspiration, and that’s exciting,” says Portaleo when asked what it’s like to be the owner of a cookie company. The Rooster 14 Company is young and growing. Portaleo has 12 other flavors she plans to introduce to Atlanta in the near future. Her cookies will also become available from a Rooster 14 Cookie food truck.

“I go in the city and people are always like, ‘I love your cookies, keep it local. We love it.’ That gives me inspiration, and it makes me happy to serve something like that.”

Rooster cookies can be found in their signature jar at the following intown Atlanta locations: Candler Park Super Market, Savi Urban Market in Inman Park, Oak Grove Market in Decatur, Horizon Theater Company in Little Five Points and Doc Chey’s in Grant Park and Virginia Highlands. They are also available for order online at rooster14.com.