Corktown Deli & Brews does a bit of a transformation leading up to the holidays. Owner Tom Hanson jokes you can just call it “Cookietown.”

The restaurant bakes thousands of cookies for sale in many of the Duluth Grill Group locations.

Hanson said it’s a long-running tradition in the company.

“The other night, these young guys were playing Christmas music as we’re piping cookies. I mean, it’s honestly kind of something that we need as humans, you know?” he said.

Hanson himself piped 1,200 cookies one night.

“It really … just kind of feeds the soul. I guess that’s what the restaurant business is,” he said. “And what drives people to come here.”

Jeff Petcoff, who helps run Corktown, says the Florentines are his favorite.

“We’ve been doing cookies for probably about 20 years now. And so it’s a tradition that we learned from an old-time baker named Dexter Larson, and we want to give him a lot of credit,” Petcoff said.

The cookies are for sale at locations like Corktown, Goat Hill Marketplace, Duluth Grill, and others.