13 OctOber 30 - NOvember 5, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents serving classic French bistro fare like escar- gots, French onion soup, and moules frites. And, for sushi lovers, Tatsuya Sekiguchi’s omakase in the renovated Continental Gin Building offers a 10-seat counter dining ex- perience, where you’ll be served expertly crafted Edomae-style sushi.” ▼ SWEETS COOKIE MONSTER 1.5 MILLION COOKIES AND A VIRAL DIET COKE: JD’S CHIPPERY IS A GROWING FAMILY LEGACY. BY LAUREN DREWES DANIELS O n many mornings, there’s a line out- side JD’s Chippery in Snider Plaza before it opens. Some are there for the always warm and gooey semi-sweet chocolate chip cookie or perhaps the muf- fins, including the glorious pumpkin choco- late chip or savory ham and cheese. Sometimes it’s for four 32-ounce Diet Cokes, the standard order for one customer. But for many, this small cookie shop that evokes a Keebler Elf treehouse vibe is a ritual. The shop was opened in 1983 by John and Julie Broad. The latter developed the recipes and, for decades, walked to work from their nearby house at 3 a.m. every day. She knew everyone who walked into the store. While the shop is steeped in history, its future be- longs to their daughter Amy Broad. Auction House to Cookie House Broad was raised at JD’s Chippery. She took naps under the counters. But after college, she didn’t have her sights set on taking on the family business. “I went to Christie’s [Auction House] in New York,” she says about a dream sparked by reading romance novels in her teens that were often set in auction houses. She was de- termined to make that fiction her life’s work. “I called the lady [at Christie’s] so many times until she finally said, ‘Come in, I’ll give you a job, stop calling me,’” Broad says. “So I just went to work there, even though she said there’s nothing open. One day, she just said, ‘I’ll make a job for you. Just stop calling.’” That led her to auction houses in Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong. She also started a vintage Louis Vuitton truck company and a media company. She even launched a baby food business in Hong Kong. Needless to say, she was always an entrepreneur. After her dad suffered a stroke, Broad moved back home to help her parents, who were ready to retire. “They really didn’t want to sell it; that was just my soft push,” she says. “I spent a year really getting to know the business. I’d already worked here; it’s not like I didn’t know it, but I spent a year basically familiar- izing myself with the ins and outs of it.” Her dad knew the business was in good hands, and her parents got to retire and spend time together. “He loved that,” she says. “They got to spend a lot of really good time together three years before he passed away, so it’s great.” 25-Pound Box of Chocolate Even after a life surrounded by batches of cookie dough, Broad still likes sweets, except for a stretch when she swore off chocolate. “I didn’t eat chocolate until I was about 18 years old, though,” she says, referring to the time they were looking for a new choco- late supplier. “I remember testing 25-pound boxes of chocolate for two months, and I think I just never wanted to eat chocolate again after that.” But now, she’s proud of the legacy they have created and makes cookies she’s proud to sell and consume. “I think the six ingredients, if you wrote them down, you’d recognize them and have them all in your pantry. So, if you’re going to eat a cookie, eat this cookie,” she says. More than a dozen types of cookies are baked fresh throughout the day. They also offer seasonal specialties (iced pumpkin cookies) and personalized cookie cakes, plus more than a dozen varieties of muffins. But maintaining quality comes at a price, especially when baking 1.5 million cookies a year. “The cost of chocolate has gone up 30 to 40%. So, we’ve tried to keep our prices as reasonable as possible,” she says. Over three years she’s had to raise prices 50 to 60 cents, because of the cost of chocolate and labor. “Our labor costs are through the roof,” she says. “People want to make at least $16 an hour now, and we never used to take tips either, but I had to change that. It was something I didn’t really want to do, but ev- ery other business in town allows their em- ployees tips, and I wouldn’t be able to attract the caliber of employees that I wanted if I didn’t.” Viral Diet Coke and Expansion JD’s has a committed cookie following, and its Diet Coke does, too. Broad uses a unique formula, much like McDonald’s. Recently, an SMU student ordered one with fresh-squeezed lime added, which went viral. “I think 500,000 people might’ve watched her video and then all of a sudden people started walking in and they’d look a little bit lost. I was like, ‘Are you here for a Diet Coke?’ They’d say, ‘How did you know?’” JD’s has recently expanded the empire to a new store at Preston and Royal (north- east corner at 6025 Royal Lane), where you can sit down, as opposed to the grab-and- go format at Snider Plaza. This store offers all of the same items as the Snider Plaza lo- cation, but also has ice cream. Which means, you can get an ice cream sandwich with fresh-baked cookies for that Goldi- locks belt of where hot meets cold. And an amazing Diet Coke. ▼ INFLATION ‘THE SLOWDOWN … HAS MATERIALIZED’ NEW DATA REVEAL THAT TEXAS RESTAURANTS ARE FACING A PERFECT STORM. BY LAUREN DREWES DANIELS The Texas Restaurant Association’s (TRA) latest economic report isn’t great news for the hospitality business. The TRA advo- cates for the $138 billion statewide restau- rant industry through its membership program, lobbying efforts and guidance on a slew of issues. Last week, Emily Williams Knight, presi- dent and CEO of the TRA, sent an email out that started with a rather blunt warning: “Unfortunately, I have to sound the alarm a bit. Our data, combined with reports we’re reading from Black Box Intelligence and others, suggests that the slowdown we’ve all feared has materialized. I say this not to cre- ate panic but to prepare you,” Knight wrote in the industry-wide newsletter. She points out that a key holiday season is around the corner and now is the time to re- view every aspect of business with an eye on efficiency, ROI and guest experience. We’ve heard similar rumblings re- cently, including the stunning 15% drop in visitors to the State Fair this year. People just don’t want to go out as much or have as much disposable income. And every- thing costs more. CNBC.com reported: “Within the food index, prices for meat, poultry, fish and eggs surged 5.2% in the past year, while nonalcoholic beverages increased 5.3%.” Energy is up 5.1%, and natural gas is up 11.7%. The National Restaurant Association re- port showed that in the last five years, food and labor costs for the average restaurant have each gone up 35%. Overall, restaurant customer traffic is still down from pre-pan- demic levels. For diners, that means menu prices increased 31% between February 2020 and April 2025, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, there is a bit of good news. The Texas Workforce Commission has launched the Employer Child Care Solu- tions, which offers technical assistance to help businesses meet the childcare needs of their employees. A broader look at the numbers affecting restaurants isn’t comforting. Black Box In- telligence provides restaurant industry data through a network of financial, workforce and guest data. In September, the firm re- ported that “after a period that gave cause for optimism for restaurants, the weakening economy is — sadly — starting to show up in the numbers.” Black Box also reported that in Septem- ber, year-over-year same-store sales and traffic were down for a second month, “un- derscoring that the economy — and restau- rant performance — are losing steam.” The TRA’s data shows a spike in food and labor costs in Q3 paired with an uptick in menu prices. In a survey, the TRA identified several factors affecting restaurant owners. Food Costs: 48% reported that food costs increased slightly Labor Costs: 56% responded that labor costs increased slightly Sales and Revenue: 38% reported that sales and revenue were down slightly Menu Prices: 46% responded that menu prices stayed about the same and 50% re- sponded that menu prices increased slightly. Traffic: 37% reported that traffic de- creased slightly Profit Margin: 40% responded that the profit margin decreased slightly Knight noted the federal government shutdown. Federal employees are missing paychecks and “services our industry relies on like alcohol label approvals, economic data collection, and SBA small business loans are paused.” Kayla Enright Nuri is one of two Dallas steakhouses that made the 2025 list of World’s 101 Best Steak Restaurants. Lauren Drewes Daniels Amy Broad at JD’s Chippery
