BOONE, N.C. — Cookies and ice cream are a simple concept creating a buzz in the high country. Blue Deer Cookies opened its first location as a food truck back in 2018, and now has two brick-and-mortar stores in the heart of Blowing Rock and Boone.

Blue Deer Cookies is growing fast in Watauga County

They sell cookies and ice cream that go with the season

Starting as a food truck, the company now has two brick-and-mortar locations in Blowing Rock and Boone

Austin Northern loves cookies.

"Moisture inside, just being able to break it apart. It's not crunchy," Northern said.

He remembers vividly cookies his wife's mother made for him years ago. So when he went to college and saw someone selling cookies and ice cream, he decided to bring the concept back to his hometown.

"I just love my home. It's an awesome place. We get to live in a vacation town where people always want to go," Northern said.

It started with a food truck on the side of Highway 321, and now it has two locations in Boone and Blowing Rock.

"Everything is fresh baked," Northern said.

All of the cookies and ice cream change with the season.

"We probably go through, across all our locations, 300 pounds of cookie dough a week. Ice cream, probably the same," Northern said.

They have fall favorites like apple pie and pumpkin. They also just started espressos and hand scoop milkshakes.  

"It's the only homemade hand scoop milkshake in all of Watauga County," Northern said.

The popularity has caused people to ask them to freeze their ice cream sandwiches. They are now selling frozen sandwiches in Ashe County and at Appalachian State University football games.

He says they aren't finished yet. They hope to expand further in the future.

"We're hoping to expand to West Jefferson next," Northern said.