At a gas station in the Cheviot Hills neighborhood of West Los Angeles, customers are lining up not for fuel but for cookies. Inside sits Zooies, a bakery run by founder Arezou Appel, who still personally develops every recipe the shop sells.
The pairing of gas pump and pastry case was not a marketing gimmick. Appel’s husband, Jeff Appel, already owned the gas station, and that existing property gave the family a way to start a food business without taking on the overhead of a standalone storefront.
That arrangement, Appel says, is what keeps her prices low even as she insists on the ingredients and methods she wants to use. Cookies at Zooies run about $4 on average.
“Being able to be in a gas station and taking advantage of this side of the food mart and gas station has helped us to keep the prices low,” Appel said.
The business grew out of home baking. Appel started making cookies when her children were in preschool, teaching herself from cookbooks, magazines and cooking shows with no formal training.
“I just wanted to make the best that I could for my husband, two kids,” Appel said.
Word spread as friends and neighbors tasted her baking and started asking for recipes, and the idea of turning a home kitchen hobby into a company took shape from there.
65 Flavors, Nine Years Later
Zooies now offers around 65 cookie varieties, including vegan, gluten-free, paleo and refined-sugar-free options. Among the top sellers are the Brown Butter Chocolate Chip and Gooie cookies.
The Brown Butter Chocolate Chip recipe is built with ingredients measured in grams and a mix of chocolate chips and chunks cut from larger blocks, producing what Appel described as a cookie with “a nice crust” on the outside while staying “soft and gooey” inside.
The shop has stayed a family operation. Appel’s daughter, Sophia Appel, worked there on and off growing up, handling social media, front-of-house work and inventory. Her son, Charlie Appel, currently attends Loyola Marymount University while also working on the management side of the business, covering operations, HR, partnerships, catering, logistics and business development.
A Neighborhood Fixture
Regulars have become fixtures of their own. Andrea Johnson has been ordering the Walnut Gooie for seven or eight years. Curtis Fralin visits roughly once a week. Axel Baum called the cookies “next-level elite” and described Zooies as a longstanding staple of the neighborhood.
For Appel, the appeal of running the shop goes beyond what’s in the display case.
“People coming through this door are really that family and friend that we haven’t met yet,” she said.
She still measures success one bite at a time.
“Wow,” Appel said. “We did it right again.”
