If you can never turn down a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie, a cake-y walnut brownie or a crunchy almond biscotti, make tracks to Michael’s Cookie Jar in West U. Owner Michael Savino is a CIA-trained pastry chef who paid his dues in the kitchens of the Four Seasons hotels in Houston and Dallas before hanging his own shingle. Here, he focuses on nothing but cookies — a medium he calls the perfect combination of rustic baking techniques and detailed pastry work. He’s perfected myriad varieties, from home-style American favorites (including snickerdoodles, his best-selling drop cookie) to fancy iced sugar creations, cut out and decorated in dozens of themes, as well as recipes culled from vintage European cookbooks and even his grandmother’s kitchen. In the 1,500-square-foot storefront, an open kitchen backs the glass cookie counter — all the better to watch the bakers making dough with all the good stuff, such as unsalted butter and Valrhona chocolate. Our only dilemma: Should we indulge first in almond Florentine shortbread or rugelach? Or maybe a coconut macaroon … 5330 Weslayan St., 713.771.8603; michaelscookiejar.com.

 

Image: Photo by Adam Nyholt Photography.