Get Chunky

Get Chunky Founder Kyra McNally was inspired by Levain Bakery in New York, famed for their super-sized cookies.

"I've always been obsessed with baking, and eating, cookies since I was little," she tells Lost in Fremantle on the idea to open a New York-style cookie business, something she's been cooking up for more than a decade.

"It has been on my bucket list for over 10 years. I couldn't believe that a chunky cookie had never been done Australia wide. At that point, I knew I had found an untapped market."

In 2017, McNally opened a stall in Fremantle Markets serving her freshly baked sweet treats.

Super-sized cookies are made by hand, focusing on using fresh, local ingredients and no additives or preservatives. Their popularity was instant.

Fast forward to late 2021 and Get Chunky has found a permanent home in Fremantle at FOMO. The store is an Instagram worthy space of pastel pink and white walls, light oak timber tables and a gleaming counter behind the sweet treats on show. A neon light with the motto, "you had me at cookie", says it all.

All cookies are baked fresh on-site daily and with over 13 flavours to choose from. Dig into fan flavour favourites like Rocky Chunk, packed with milk and white choc chips, peanuts, raspberry jellies and chewy marshmallows. Or Chunky Red Velvet dough with white chocolate chips. There are always new flavours making the menu, being partial to unique seasonal flavours, like the recent choc-orange Halloween cookie and a Christmas line that included fruit mince and gingerbread spiced specials.

A small offering of vegan and gluten-free cookies means all food tolerances are catered to. And if you can't get enough of the sweet stuff, ask for your cookie with an added "sweetox injection", where the cookie is filled with Nutella or custard.

The Fremantle store also houses a make your own cookie dough bar. Here you first select your raw edible cookie dough, choosing between vanilla or chocolate flavours, then decide on your "swirl" topping (that comes in six flavours), followed by mix-ins like M&Ms and caramel popcorn. Plus, they serve up ice cream sandwiches. Pick a cookie, ice-cream flavour and your perfect toppings, and... voilà! Your sugar hit is guaranteed.

McNally says it's surreal to see Get Chunky become such a hit.

"It's been such a whirlwind, but we are extremely grateful for the support we have received and are very excited to see what the future holds," she says. "We think the FOMO dining precinct is going to bring this part of Fremantle back to life."

With such a pretty space, Get Chunky also works as a café stop, with a menu of creamy malted milkshakes, iced teas and coffees, that come in creative latte flavours like Iced Biscoff and Iced Caramel.

Photo credit: Shot By Thom / Thom Davidson