A new cookie shop has just opened in downtown Eugene, in the footprint of another cookie shop that closed late last year.
The owner of this store is hopeful for good fortune.
On Doughmo’s Cookie Company’s grand opening day, a steady stream of customers lined up under a colorful awning that had “Morty”, a French bulldog, emblazoned on it. Workers took orders at the register as vendors dropped off bags of flour, eggs, and sugar.
Navigating the space with another worker, Dominique Civitano prepped racks upon racks of cookies with care and precision.
“I am adding some big chocolate wafers to some mini chocolate cookies,” she explained.
Civitano is the owner of Doughmo’s, based in Hawaii. This is their first mainland location, as well as first brick-and-mortar store. It occupies the former space of Crumb Together, which struggled with challenges including the pandemic economy and confrontative visitors.
This included two anti-maskers who assaulted one of Crumb Together’s owners in November 2021, an exchange that went viral on social media. One of the anti-mask activists, Amy Hall, was just sentenced to nearly four years in prison, while her accomplice, Ricki Collin, remains at large.
But despite this history, Civitano was upbeat.
“We all are here to have a really good time, be part of the community and kinda be a safe, positive place,” she told KLCC. “So we’re feeling good, we’re feeling really positive about it.”
Some proceeds from Doughmo’s will go towards causes including Alzheimer’s research (Civitano’s mother has Alzheimer’s) , abortion access and services, and animal rescues and shelters.
Oregon overall is showing signs of rebounding from the pandemic’s economic effects, as COVID fears continue to wane. More and more people are venturing back into stores and eateries, which bodes well for new ventures like Doughmo’s first store in the contiguous United States.
