Business of the Week: Family Cookie Company Outlet Store

It’s It chocolate covered ice cream sandwiches have been putting smiles on people’s faces since 1928. Once available only in San Francisco, children and adults alike can now enjoy the tasty treats available in stores across the state, and 14 others. Suisun City offers an even sweeter treat, however. With the , you can enjoy all the flavors and take a box or two home, as well.

“The cookies we use in the It’s Its, we started making in 1977,” said Jay Shamieh, owner.

The Family Cookie Company is the company that makes the cookies that go in It’s It ice cream sandwiches. Started by Jay’s father, Fuad Shimieh, in Burlingame, he began making the cookies after It’s It, who had recently been acquired by Fuad’s nephews, decided they wanted to work with a local cookie company to ensure they were using fresh, good quality cookie dough.

Fuad moved his company to Suisun City three years later, where the cookies have been made ever since. Now Jay’s brother and sister-in-law run the Family Cookie Company, and Jay runs the Outlet Store.

“We don’t make the It’s Its, my first cousins do that,” said Shimieh. “So we make the cookies for them only, and then we send it to them and they do magic and do the rest.”

Shimieh worked with his brother at the Family Cookie Company until 2009 when he decided to open the Outlet Store next door. He admits though he was a little nervous about how the store would be received, he is now sure he should have opened it sooner.

“We should have opened up looking back maybe 10 years ago,” said Shimieh.

The store offers It’s Its in the original vanilla flavor, as well as cappuccino, mint, and chocolate. Other ice cream novelties include the Big Daddy, Super Sunday and Chips It. Stella Gourmet cookies  are also available to be purchased already baked, or as cookie dough usually used for fundraisers.

“The cookie dough is our baby,” said Shimieh. “Stella Gourmet is seven years young and it’s a wonderful cookie. We’re real proud of that line.”

 The cookie dough is not the only items people use for fundraisers. Many groups purchase the It’s Its from the Outlet Store at a discounted rate for their fundraisers. Cases of mixed selections can be made right there in the store, as well.

Jay said he has seen people get creative with the ice cream treats, even making It’s It cakes for birthday parties, engagement parties, baptisms and weddings.

“It’s a nice idea, its really easy,” said Shimieh. “People have sent me pictures.”

Shimieh said he hears of many different ways people have used It’s Its to make memories. One man placed a ring inside of ice cream to propose to his girlfriend. Even Shimieh’s father used an It’s It to propose to his mother.

It is the sense of nostalgia that people feel when eating the treats that is part of what keeps bringing people back to the It’s It Outlet Store. Mireya Lopez, who has been working as a manager in the Outlet Store for a year now, said she has loved It’s Its since she was nine. She said the best sellers lately have been the Big Daddy’s, as well as the vanilla and mint It’s Its.

“I love the cappuccino, but the original is always gonna be my favorite,” she said. “It never gets old.”