We tried the giant gooey cookies at Crave’s debut bakery in the Carolinas. Yum!
Crave Cookies, the coast-to-coast chain known for its ginormous, fresh-baked, two-inch-high cookies with incredibly gooey middles, opens its first location in the Carolinas on Saturday, Feb. 21 in downtown Mooresville.
Owners Nekolle Eddie of Huntersville and Macie Mincey and Samonia Ngo of Charlotte will give away 1,000 chocolate chip cookies at the grand opening from 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. The event also will include raffles, face painting, cookie decorating, music and a photo booth.
Chocolate chip is the most popular of Crave’s many varieties and will be available every week, while other selections change, they said. Cookies are $4.49, or $23.30 for a box of six.
Founded in Utah in 2019, Crave has at least 50 locations nationwide, all locally owned. Cookies are baked daily in-house with “real butter and Guittard milk chocolate,” in custom molds “for height, texture, and the perfect gooey center,” according to the company website.
The company says it created and trademarked a new category of cookie called the Deep Dish — 2 inches high, “four distinct textures, one proprietary curve that holds everything together (and holds more toppings). This is what happens when cookies stop being polite and start getting DEEP.”
Every two weeks, the company releases six new flavors, and the menu will change every Friday at the Crave in Mooresville.
Eddie, Ngo and Mincey also considered Ballantyne and the University area, but North Church Street in downtown Mooresville topped them all, Mincey told CharlotteFive during the location’s soft opening and Mooresville-South Iredell Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting on Wednesday.
Several restaurants line the block, and Mooresville’s Liberty Park and its amphitheater behind the building “is filled with people just enjoying their time,” Mincey said. “Community was a big one for us” in where to locate.
Three varieties were available the morning I visited. I bought two of each and drove them to the Charlotte Observer office in Charlotte, where everyone devoured them, one chunk at a time.
“Best cookies I’ve ever had,” my editor said.
The varieties were:
Crave Chocolate Chip: OG Ghiradelli milk chocolate chips with Crave’s signature dough.
Chocolate Lava: Chocolate dough with molten, gooey chocolate center.
Sweetheart Sugar: Signature dough with pink vanilla buttercream frosting.
I loved the gooey center of the Chocolate Lava and the dreamy, creamy flavor of the Sweetheart Sugar.
I thought my colleagues would leave me at least one cookie to take home, but all I got was an empty Crave box, except for a few crumbs.
Crave Cookies Mooresville
Location: 201 N. Church St., Suite 103, Mooresville NC 28115.
Cuisine: Deep Dish cookies, signature sodas
Instagram: @thecravecookies.mooresville.
This story was originally published February 20, 2026 at 6:15 AM.