Local Living Treasure

Where does the spirit of entrepreneurial creativity live in Tacoma? Ask Deborah Tuggle, owner of Friday’s Cookie Company. Her story is an inspiring one.  A single mom, she enrolled in court reporting school in the mid-’90s and covered costs by selling home-baked cookies to classmates on Fridays. Baking quickly came to look like a better business proposition than operating a steno machine. Fast forward to 2006: Tuggle now ships thousands of cookies every week, including her signature, pecan-packed ‘Friday’s Original’ and the deliciously buttery, brightly-frosted ‘Flower Power.’ To keep up with increasing volume, she’s moving to a 10,000 square-foot space and closing her storefront on South 11th. But don’t panic. The best cookies and dough in town are available at Metropolitan Markets and online at www.fridayscookies.com. Tuggle’s vision, optimism and hard work are the keys to her success; she’s done it herself, the old-fashioned way. Yet she’s quick to credit the community that supported her from the start. “If you have people who believe in you and want to support you,” she says, “the results can be amazing.”

Photo by Chris Tumbusch