Edible Cookie Dough Debuts on the Strip in March

Doughp, the edible cookie dough company out of San Francisco, brings raw dough and a non-alcoholic bar to the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood Resort on March 16.

The 900-square-foot cookie dough bar, pronounced “dope,” features neon lights, a foosball table, high school bleachers, and a 24/7 vending machine called the “Doughp Dealer” filled with jars of edible cookie dough.

Customers can watch the cookie dough being made in 50-pound lots, and can even customize their dough in one- to three-scoop increments filled with chocolate chips, sprinkles, childhood cereals, peanut butter, or even chocolate sauce from a three-tier chocolate fountain.

Doughp flavors include This S’more is Hella Lit with cookie dough with graham cracker pieces, marshmallows, chocolate chips, and a chocolate drizzle; Cinnamood with snickerdoodle cookie dough with white chocolate chips; Cookie Monsta with blue cookie dough with Oreo; and a special Vegas flavor Vegas Blackout with black chocolate chip cookie dough with gold sprinkles, inspired by the Vegas Golden Knights NHL team.

Founder Kelsey Witherow teamed up with the Chippendales for the cookie dough bar’s first collaboration, Chipp-tastic, a “chipp”-filled cookie dough with chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and potato chips. Doughp donates 100 percent of proceeds from this flavor to the Nevada Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. The menu will highlight a dedicated flavor every six months and 100-percent of the proceeds is donated back to a local mental health nonprofit.

In 2017, when Doughp originally opened in San Francisco, some questioned Witherow’s intentions in tying hip-hop with cookie dough. Justin Phillips of the San Francisco Chronicle questioned Witherow’s choices, including naming flavors things like “This S’more is hella lit” and “White girl,” according to Eater San Francisco. From the article:

“So you want to know how I became a ‘Doughp’ dealer,” Witherow jokingly asked when we spoke last week. When asked about the shop’s theme, she responded with: “I was the white girl at my high school who was going through the Hyphy movement. I was obsessed with Mac Dre.”

Hm.

As an African American, journalist, hip hop junkie and connoisseur of sweets, I’m torn. Cookie dough is amazing. Witherow seems charming and well intentioned. And I loved Mac Dre, too. But I can’t help but tilt my head at this.

Cookie dough counter-service shops weren’t a normal black community dining experience for most growing up. So, to faintly dress it as such seems a little ... disingenuous, maybe?

Witherow, in a press statement, says she started Doughp after giving up alcohol. “I started my journey into sobriety in 2015 and without that decision, undoubtedly, Doughp would not exist today. I rediscovered my passions and set off to make people smile with this nostalgic dessert. I’m here to show others struggling from addiction that the grass is WAY greener on the other side and to elevate the conversation around addiction and mental health. We’re all going through something — let’s talk about it.”

Doughp offers a liquor-free bar with mocktails and rounds of milk “shots” to accompany cookie dough, along with cookie dough milkshakes and coffee drinks from a full espresso bar featuring coffee by Big House Beans.

Doughp plans to be open daily from 10 a.m. to midnight.

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