Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company

What you need to know

The Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory has been making fortune cookies by hand at 56 Ross Alley in Chinatown since August 1962. The shop is owned by Franklin Yee, and was designated a San Francisco Legacy Business in 2016. June 8, 2018 was declared Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company Day by the city.

How They’re Made

Workers ladle batter onto motorized circular griddles. As each disc bakes, a worker lifts it with chopsticks, slips a paper fortune onto the warm cookie, and folds it into the classic crescent shape before it cools and hardens. The whole process happens in front of the customer area, in a space of about 200 square feet.

Production runs up to 10,000 cookies a day. The shop sells traditional vanilla fortune cookies, chocolate fortune cookies, almond cookies, and other sweets. Flat unfolded cookies are sold by the bag.

Visiting

Address: 56 Ross Alley, Chinatown

Hours: Daily, roughly 9am to 6pm. Hours can vary.

Cost: Free to watch. A box of fortune cookies is $17. A bag of flat unfolded cookies is $10. Photography inside is 50 cents per photo.

What to know: Cash-preferred.

Getting There

The 30 Stockton and 45 Union/Stockton buses run on Stockton Street, one block west. The 1 California bus runs on Clay Street, two blocks south. From Montgomery BART, the walk is about 15 minutes north. The Portsmouth Square Garage on Kearny is the closest public parking.