Toronto’s newest cookie shop is inside this colourful trailer

For half a century now, Peter’s Garage, a family-owned auto body shop, has been fixing and souping up European cars on the corner of College and Robert, right next to Fresca Pizza. But, recently, something has been parked in the lot out front that isn’t an Audi or a Mercedes-Benz—it’s the home of Robert Street Cookies, an adorable trailer with a designer paint job on the outside and baked goods on the inside.

Related: A ranking of Toronto’s 10 best new cookies

The person behind the sparkling sweets-filled trailer is Stephanie Stojanovic, a former TDSB teacher whose husband, Vaso, owns the garage. (It was passed down to him by his father, Peter.) “I moved in with Vaso into his apartment above the shop in 1998, and we’ve lived on Robert Street ever since,” says Stojanovic.

Stojanovic liked teaching, but by the end of the pandemic, she was burnt out and wanted to do something different with her life. “I graduated from TMU with a degree in journalism, but when I became a mother, it just didn’t work with my lifestyle—so I went to teacher’s college,” she says. “While I enjoyed teaching, I found myself constantly searching for creative outlets. I always had a fun side hustle going, like hand-making wedding invitations or making and selling my own masks during the pandemic.”

Growing up with an Italian nonna and a grandmother who was obsessed with baking, Stojanovic was always moved by food. “When I was away at university, my grandmother would send me care packages of baked goods, complete with very detailed recipes. She used to put 7-Up in her pie crust—she was a bit of a genius,” she says. After Covid precautions were lifted, Stojanovic started baking cookies for her son’s volleyball teammates, who all needed some extra spirit after months of lockdowns. Her chocolate chunk recipe quickly became a hit. “People I didn’t know would come up to ask me if I was the ‘cookie lady,’" she says. “It suddenly dawned on me that I was.”

So Stojanovic put her head down and began reading books about baking from cover to cover to perfect her recipes. At first, she thought she’d open up a neighborhood café. “Vaso and I looked around for a lease, but every place we saw was overpriced, and many were former weed shops—and you could still smell it,” she says. “That combined with the fact that I was a terrible latte artist meant that it was back to the drawing board.”

Then, earlier this spring, Stojanovic decided to set up shop right in the driveway of Peter’s Garage. “We thought, We’re in the business of vehicles, so why not put a shop right inside one?” Now, the brightly coloured cookie caravan—painted, along with the building’s brick wall, by designer Tiffany Pratt—is open Thursday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., selling a rotating selection of about 30 recipes. The standouts so far include lemon meringue, peanut butter with salted roasted peanuts, ube vanilla swirl with a brûléed finish, s’mores, pretzel toffee chocolate and the out-there Movie Night cookie: chocolate dough stuffed with Stojanovic’s favourite film-watching treats—licorice, Swedish Berries, popcorn, peanut M&Ms and Sour Patch Kids. In the coming months, she plans to add drip coffee to the menu, along with one more essential item: “People keep asking for milk with their cookies.”

Robert Street Cookies, 1 Robert St., roberstreetcookies.com, @robertstreetcookies