TREAT yourself.
It's a phrase that rolls off the tongue almost too easily at Marshall and Daughters' new shopfront in Newcastle.
Previously based in Mayfield, the online cookie store-turned-brick-and-mortar shop has moved into bigger premises on Crown Street.
Chunky New York-style cookies are the star alongside the new additions of loaded shakes, ice-cream sandwiches and a cereal bar serving up imported American cereals such as Lucky Charms and Reece's Pieces.
"You can get a bowl of cereal or you can get a loaded shake with crushed-up Oreos with ice-cream and Fruit Pebbles cereal mixed in too," owner Nathan Marshall explains.
"Our catchphrase is 'treat yourself' and that's what it is - it's a treat."
Nathan and his wife Mel launched Marshall and Daughters in June 2021 after their travel company Soundmart Touring was forced to pause due to COVID-19.
They turned to cookies, recreating the chunky, New York-style cookies they fell in love with during a trip to the US.
Their online store grew and six months later they opened a cafe in Mayfield which they quickly outgrew.
Marshall estimates their cookie production has increased from around 100 per day up to 300 in the space of a year.
The Mayfield site is now solely a production and storage facility, while the shop at Crown Street marks the next phase for Marshall and Daughters as a dessert bar.
"We wanted to add dessert and had always intended to offer ice-cream sandwiches with the cookies but we just didn't have the space at Mayfield to be able to do that," Marshall says.
"That was one of our key growth objectives of moving, to grow into a dessert bar and away from being a cafe."
Coffee is still on the menu and Marshall and Daughters also hope to capture the dessert crowd by offering late trade until 8pm.
The Crown Street location is a perfect pocket for foodies - Mexican taqueria Chiefly De Gallo, Italian deli Arno and The Lucky Hotel are all within a few steps.
They have installed two ovens in the shop so customers can enjoy the cookies baked fresh in-store.
"There's nothing better than the smell of freshly-baked cookies," Marshall says.
The cookies used for the ice-cream sandwiches are a smaller, more traditional version that is the perfect size to stuff with ice-cream.
Customers can choose from any two cookies to create the sandwich and select one of six ice-cream flavours with toppings such as nuts, M&Ms or Biscoff.
The same goes for the loaded shakes - choose your milk, ice-cream and add-ons.
The idea is that the flavour combinations are limitless.
"It's a pretty simple idea of using all the same ingredients for different menu items but letting the customer choose instead of having a set menu," he says.
"I really wanted to make it custom so there are infinite options but you are still using those core ingredients."
In the coming weeks, Marshall and Daughters will launch a Sunday morning 'Cereal Squad' with cereal bowls served, while retro cartoons are screened on the TV.
"We'll have it from 8am to 11am in our dining area with retro Ninja Turtles cartoons and things like that so kids, or big kids like me, can have a bowl of cereal and watch old cartoons," he says.
It's a bit of nostalgia and something that Marshall, who is a father of two, wants to create at his shop.
"I want to make it fun because when it comes down to it, you're trying to create those special fun moments," he says.
"It's like Jim's milk bar [in Hamilton] which is a Newcastle institution.
"I remember my parents taking me there for a milkshake and those are the memories you hold on to, so that's what I'm trying to recreate."
Marshall and Daughters is open Tuesday to Sunday from 8am to 8pm.
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