Local veteran bakes cookies, follows his dreams.
Frank D. Racioppo, opened his second bakery, The Cookie Express in 2012. Before The Cookie Express, he had a cookie shop in Pasadena from 1986-1992. In 1992 he decided to retire.”Four years ago I decided to open another cookie shop because it’s a passion, It’s a big part of me and I enjoy baking”, Racioppo said. Since Racioppo decided to open up The Cookie Express it has been nothing but a struggle. “Business hasn’t been all that great” Racioppo said, “The problem is, People don’t know I’m here”.
Racioppo is a Disabled Veteran, He served 15 years with the Army and 10 years with the Marine Court. He took part in Vietnam war and suffers from PTSD. “I want people to come because of the quality of my cookies and cakes, not because I’m a disabled vet”, Racioppo said “Everything we make here is from scratch, its homemade”. Racioppo has loved baking since he was 9 years old. “I taught myself everything I know, taste, texture, color. I taught myself all of it and I’m good at what I do”.
“Customers are the most important thing, My employees and I treat them like neighbors I base off of their times if they need something earlier or later than my shop hours are, ill be here”. Racioppo said, “I have the best deals in town, you can get a dozen of quality cookies at my shop for eight dollars, a dozen usually weighs around 2 ½-3 pounds, they’re big cookies” Racioppo said “Its not easy to find a place where you can get quality cakes, cookies, cheesecakes and cookie cakes, for the price that we sell at here, we do our best to make our customers happy. That’s our priority”.