Founder Martha Rossini Olson holding a bucket of cookies

Our Story

They don’t call Martha Rossini Olson “sweet” for nothing. St. Paul native Martha (you may know her as Sweet Martha) and her three business partners – Gary Olson and Neil & Brenda O’Leary – have been selling fresh-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookies for over 40 years. And to think it was part luck, as Martha says.

What is now a cookie empire, producing 3 million cookies per day of the Minnesota State Fair, began humbly, with one 9x11 booth in 1979. Now, 40+ years later, you can find Sweet Martha’s at Twin Cities’ events, as well as our frozen cookie dough in area grocery stores, and, of course, every summer at the Minnesota State Fair.

Try a cone, or perhaps a pail, of cookies for yourself. As Martha says, “Some say our cookies taste better than Mom’s...”

Sweet Martha’s: From Past to Present

Timeline

1978: Sweet Martha’s Yogurt Shop

Before even considering cookies, the Sweet Martha’s owners ran a frozen yogurt shop on Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. We applied for the Minnesota State Fair, but were rejected. (There already was a yogurt stand at the fair.)

1979: Applying for the State Fair

Try, try again. In 1979, Martha and crew applied for the State Fair again, this time for both yogurt and cookies. Three weeks before the fair began, we were accepted – for cookies. Only problem? We didn’t have a cookie recipe, so we combined all of our mothers’ recipes into what you now know and love.

1979-1982: Our First Stand

A few weeks later, we opened our first State Fair stand, a 9’ x 11’ structure that the owners built themselves. At first we were able to make 200 cookies in 12 minutes. Now we can bake 44,000 cookies in the same amount of time.

1983-1993: The Second Stand

Turns out fairgoers love cookies (who doesn’t?), and we needed more room to bake them. In 1983 we tore down our First Stand and moved into this stand, which had been Homeplate Diner, a spot that sold hamburgers and hot dogs.

1984-present: The Trailer Stand

Remember this trailer? We built it as a second location at the State Fair from 1984 to 1990. We also used it throughout the ‘80s, ‘90s and 2000s for smaller events such as Riverfest, Uptown Art Fair, MSRA Car Show and Soundset.

1991-present: The Main Booth

Goodbye, trailer! We gave up the trailer to open the Main Booth as our second location. We took over Adeline's Scandinavian Kitchen in 1992, transforming the space into what is now our oldest standing booth. It’s still in use today. Don’t miss its all-you-can-drink milk bar.

1994-2002: Opening the Grandstand Booth I

In 1994, we moved from the Second Stand to this small booth across the street from it, located near the Grandstand Stage. (Creative name, we know.)

1995: Introducing frozen cookie dough

You deserve to enjoy Sweet Martha’s cookies all year long, so in 1995 we started selling our frozen cookie dough. Find it in the frozen dessert section of grocery stores in the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota area.

2003-present: The Grandstand Booth II

We knocked down Grandstand Booth I in 2003 to build what stands today. This is our second current location and one of our home-away-from-home spots to nearly 800 employees – some new, some veterans, all friends of ours.

2018-present: Hill Booth

Welcome to Hill Booth. We built it in 2018 on the North End of the State Fair, making for three locations that average, most days at the fair, three million cookies per day.

More from the archives…