Ottawa’s sweet Crumbl success is steps away from Algonquin College
On June 28, Crumbl Cookie Nepean opened to a line of customers waiting to experience the cookies that found fame on social media. The viral dessert store located near Algonquin College has had a revolving door of customers since the franchise opened.
Marissa Bennett, a University of Ottawa student, took the bus from the downtown core to College Square to experience the Crumbl Cookie craze for the first time. She treated herself to a classic chocolate chip cookie — one of the six flavours on rotation that week — for her birthday.
“I just wanted to try it because I’ve heard about it and it was free,” Bennett said. The store offers a promotion to celebrate customers’ birthdays with a free cookie when visiting the store on their special day.
“Opening week was crazy. Honestly, I remember when we first opened, like thinking to myself, oh, like, are people going to come? Is there going to be lineups? Because you don’t know. You have no idea,” said Andy Al Hasam, the owner of the Nepean Crumbl location.
People definitely came.
There were lines that lasted hours during the franchise’s first weeks, according to a Capital Current article. Al Hasam was there for it all, waking up at 5 a.m. to go in and help his employees succeed.
Al Hasam, a 28-year-old Orléans native, surprisingly began his career in fitness. In early 2023, he started posting fitness content on social media and quickly gained 300,000 followers. During his growing success online, he received a notification that would change the course of his life: the official Crumbl Cookie account had followed him.
The founder of Crumbl, Sawyer Hemsley, and Al Hasam quickly built a friendship online. The pair would share workouts and message occasionally.
In summer of 2023, Hemsley was in Toronto attending a VIP event for the opening of the Toronto location. Al Hasam saw the posts and reached out to his friend to say hi and the next thing he knew, he had a same-day plane ticket from Ottawa to Toronto.
“I went down there, I met the COO of Crumbl, all the PR people, I shook some hands, showed face and yeah, they all liked me,” said Al Hasam.
He had previously filled out the online application to apply for a franchise location but had never heard back.
When looking to open a franchise with Crumbl, applicants can go online and fill out a form vying for their candidacy to own a Crumbl. The company has a pre-defined map of target areas they think would be great fits for the business. According to Al Hasam, the dessert chain typically does well in big suburban areas, which makes College Square the perfect location.
The store has an open kitchen layout so customers can see between 20 to 30 employees baking and working.
“We’ve actually created like 80 to 90, almost 100 active jobs,” said Al Hasam.
“I’ve lived in Ottawa my whole life, so I thought it would be a nice addition to the city. I thought it would do well,” said Al Hasam, and it has.
The Nepean location is currently Canada’s most successful Crumbl Cookies franchise, according to Al Hasam.
“Sometimes if you’re willing to dig, you can find gold in your own backyard,” Al Hasam said when talking about his love for Ottawa and why he wanted to bring success to the area through Crumbl Cookies.
Digit Joseph, a TV broadcasting student, hasn’t tried he viral cookies yet but said “the hype looks like worth it.”
Other students have tried it and have other opinions.
“I waited in line way too long. It was over-expensive. It was good, but like I think overall super overhyped,” said Liv Kelly, a second year TV broadcasting student. When asked if she would return to the dessert store, Kelly said that she would “like to say no, but the chances are high”.
Walking around campus it isn’t hard to spot the pink boxes in students hands; the cookies are here. The opinion is in the eye of the cookie holder over the tastes of the dessert, but it’s clear the franchise has made its impact in Ottawa.
