Meet Emily Hall | Owner of The Breakup Cookie and Food Stylist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Emily Hall and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Emily, what is the most important factor behind your success?
The Breakup Cookie business started by accident. When I started giving away and selling cookie dough in October of 2020 it was as a tiny, temporary, pandemic project intended for close friends and family. By December is getting texts and DMs from strangers asking if they could buy some. In January of 2021 we looked at what it would take to launch a fully legitimate, scalable business and decided it was worth the risk. I jumped in with no business background, no structure, and virtually no money, all while maintaining a full time career as a food stylist and managing a household with two little kids and a husband in the restaurant industry. There was ample room for disaster. There was one conversation with a dear friend that I have turned to more times than I can say. She told me three things: never compromise on my integrity, bet on myself, and keep making decisions. All three have stayed with me, but that last one is the kicker. I immediately had to start making thousands of decisions – big and small, simple and complex. She warned me that no matter what, I would make choices that turned out to be less efficient, more costly, and in the end just wrong, and the key is to learn from them quickly and move on. Agonizing over decisions wastes so much in terms of time, energy, and potential. Make the choice, learn the lesson, and move on.

What should our readers know about your business?
The Breakup Cookie is premium, frozen, pre-scooped, chocolate chip cookie dough sold in 12-count and 6-count containers. It is currently available at 17 retail locations across Alabama and it’s available to ship through Nourish Foods Market. It’s a really fantastic chocolate chip cookie that yields a golden exterior, is just the right amount of soft in the middle once baked, and it’s loaded with chocolate in every bite. The packages of frozen dough come with little packets of sea salt to sprinkle on the baked cookies. I introduced the cookie in Birmingham while working as a baker in a local coffee shop. I used the cookies to soften the blow of a breakup and it was decided they should be the house cookie at the coffee shop with The Breakup Cookie name. The coffee shop still sells the baked version and I started selling the frozen dough version officially in 2021.
Chocolate chip cookies are not inherently special. Every has a go-to recipe and every variation has been made. The Breakup Cookie stands apart because of the quality ingredients used and the care we take in our process. And the name is just cheeky enough to get people’s attention.
I came into being a business owner a very roundabout way and am still very green, but I’ve enjoyed the process and am excited to see where the journey takes us.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Someone coming to stay with me in Birmingham for a week would experience June Coffee and Last Call Baking for coffee and pastries, Helen and Automatic Seafood for award-winning dinning, Juniper and Golden Age Wine for sips and bites, and walks on the Rotary Trail, which runs through the heart of Birmingham and at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My family has been so supportive from the beginning. Their belief in what I’m doing and willingness to step in and help is the biggest single thing that has kept my business moving and growing.

Instagram: @thebreakupcookie

Image Credits
Cary Norton and Jen Causey