Look to the community

Andrea Adleman

I digested various forms of the black and white cookie in recent weeks, prompted by Magnolia Bakery’s tribute to the 30th anniversary of Seinfeld this month. One 1994 episode includes a bakery scene in which Seinfeld waxes philosophical about black and white cookies, admonishing his companion to “look to the cookie” to solve racial tension.

I turned to Seinfeldia to see if author Jennifer Keishin Armstrong analyzed the famous cookie scene. She didn’t, but it was a fine excuse to lay hands on a print book and leaf through its insights. Armstrong’s writing intersects with my research via Sex and the City and Us, her 2018 book that includes analysis of the Magnolia cupcake connection.

I picked up some history from Glaser’s Bake Shop, originator of black and white cookies, closing Sunday, The Black-and-White Cookie’s Curious History, The original’s gone, but black-and-white lives on, Get To The Iconic 116-Year-Old Glaser’s Bake Shop Before It Closes Forever, and ‘Look to the Cookie’: An Ode in Black and White. (Updating to add The Mysterious Origins of the Black and White Cookie to the newsclips collection.)

Above all, I remembered my time at Glaser’s last summer. I saw Glaser’s Bake Shop VANISHING when it was first published and knew that I’d be in town the last week of June, so I planned to go then. Procuring the baked goods was easier said than done, but I persisted and succeeded, as detailed in my public Facebook post.

Commenting on my own June 2018 post, I added to the play-by-play.

Short answer: I got the historic cookie. Longer answer: lining up Friday morning was my second attempt. I first tried Thursday afternoon, but it was clear I wouldn’t get through the line in time to get to an evening event I bought a ticket for. Friday morning, I waited two hours and talked to the people around me. I actually had to leave for another ticketed event when I was maybe 20 minutes away from the counter. So a new friend got my cookies for me and I picked them up later in the day. It took three trips to the Upper East Side to accomplish the mission. Phew! More details here.

It’s not that the cookie tasted so remarkable. Its importance transcends its culinary qualities. It symbolizes history, culture, stability, and time-tested survival. Its classic flavors give it universal appeal. If you accept the Seinfeldian logic, it idealizes (sugar coats) notions of racial equality. It’s accessible and inclusive. Everyone likes it and shares ownership of the metropolitan identity it represents. It becomes a medium for community bonding, shorthand for a shared experience, a kind of locals-only secret handshake. By looking to the cookie, you can see through to the community.

I sampled Magnolia’s and it was tasty enough, but forgettable.

Then the NYT published a recipe drawing on interviews with bakery owners. The story doesn’t cite the Seinfeld anniversary and seems to be pure coincidence.

While Glaser’s is left to RIP, other members of the black and white cookie community are continuing the tradition. I’m bookmarking the recipe for near-term procratibaking.