Citizen Tate

Everyone knows Tate’s which are so ubiquitous they’ve become a synonym for “cookie”--in the way "dinner" has become “chicken” in many households. Tate’s cookies are a business phenomenon and there’s undoubtedly a backstory. But forget Southampton where their signature chocolate chip was created by Kathleen King (or a buy out by Oreo) and imagine a Tate’s Citizen Kane replete with their Rosebud which would be a childhood cookie experience on a snowy sled ride. Better yet imagine the founder of the unassuming cookie dynasty as William Randolph Hearst inhabiting a San Simeon built on vast pastry empire. Most people have a love hate relationship with the familiar green bag. You know you want a cookie but you're tired of Tate’s since you’ve had so many. On the other hand how could anyone compete with a chain that produces the Platonic ideal form of what a chocolate chip cookie should be--crunchy around the edges without ever seeming to grow stale?

read "Diasporic Dining: The Running Footman" by Francis Levy, HuffPost

and listen to "Sweets For My Sweet" by The Searchers