Fresh-baked, hot-out-of-the-oven cookies delivered to city residents’ front doors have been a novelty in Bowling Green for just over three years now.

The Cookie Jar, a business on East Court Street specializing in delivering cookies with milk, just celebrated its third anniversary at the Black Swamp Arts Festival in September. Cristy Johnson and Maureen Lanigan founded the business in 2006 with the help of a few friends.

‘We had one friend who always just insisted we wouldn’t pay him,’ Johnson said. ‘That really helped get us started.’

The business started when Johnson’s parents told her they would give her money to either finish school, or as seed money for a company.

‘I didn’t know when else I’d have that money,’ she said. ‘So I took the opportunity.’

Johnson played the role of being the business end of the Cookie Jar while her partner played a bigger role in the kitchen.

‘[Maureen] keeps on coming up with all of the recipes for our cookies,’ Johnson said. ‘If you asked her right now, she’s probably got nearly 500 recipes just in her head.’

The cookies are cooked in a conventional oven, which circulates the air to help cook them faster, Johnson said. There are somewhere between five and 10 thousand cookies baked each week.

Originally there were only three types of cookies: chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin cinnamon chip and the flourless peanut butter, along with the cookie of the day. Now the flavors customers can order every day include those, double chocolate chip and the snickerdoodle.

The cookie of the day can vary from chocolate cr’egrave;me de menthe, with Andes mints inside of the cookie, to the chocolate-covered pretzel, which was the cookie of the day when freshmen Sami Ralston and Becky Willoughby ordered cookies.

‘I heard of [The Cookie Jar] through a girl in Chi Omega,’ Ralston said. ‘We’re ordering again tomorrow.’

Neither Willoughby nor Ralston had ordered cookies before last week.

‘We ordered the snickerdoodle, double chocolate chip, chocolate chip and the cookie of the day,’ Willoughby said.

‘It was just so great to have the cookies delivered, you didn’t even have to walk,’ Ralston said. ‘And they were so warm and fresh.’

The cookie-delivering business goes over well with college students, keeping a few regulars here and there, Johnson said.

‘We really have good business around when everyone’s favorite TV shows are on,’ she said. ‘When we started, it was ‘American Idol,’ and right now it’s ‘Grey’s [Anatomy].”

While delivery is popular, visitors are also welcome. Inside are tables which turn into date night specials on Friday nights.

‘Every Friday night you can come in and order a special $15 cookie cake and a table for an hour,’ Johnson said. ‘We typically get a lot of high school students in here because it’s a safe environment.’

More information about the Cookie Jar can be found on their Web site, www.cookiejarandmore.com.