The chocolate chip cookie began its humble existence in Whitman, Massachusetts – a town in Plymouth County. It was here, in the popular Toll House restaurant run by Ruth and Kenneth Wakefield, that the soft, sweet, circular deliciousness was created as an accompaniment to ice cream.
In The New Yorker’s birthday ode to the famous cookie, the importance that the chocolate chip cookie has was highlighted.
“Wakefield’s cookie was the perfect antidote to the Great Depression. In a single inexpensive hand-held serving, it contained the very richness and comfort that millions of people were forced to live without in the late nineteen-thirties. Ingesting a warm chocolate-chip cookie offered the eaters a brief respite from their quotidian woe.”
A brief respite from woe – who knew a cookie could play such an important role. Well, DoubleTree Hotels did, it seems.
Since 1986, the hotel chain has prided itself in providing an extra special warm welcome to its customers. An oven-fresh chocolate chip cookie, baked from a secret recipe, is presented to each guest upon arrival.
To date, more than 300,000,000 cookies, each baked fresh daily, have been given out at more than 360 DoubleTree locations around the world.
While DoubleTree cookies are still going strong, Ruth and Kenneth’s Toll House restaurant burned down on New Year’s Eve in 1984 and has since been replaced by a Wendy’s. But there’s still a reason to stop if you are passing by. Inside you’ll find a small museum on Ruth Wakefield and the Toll House.
Now, who wants a cookie?
Heather is a writer, photographer and explorer of the world with bylines in Archaeology Magazine, Porthole Cruise Magazine, Taste & Travel, amongst others. She is addicted to pen, paper, hotels, organisation and hippos. In addition to Travel Gluttons, you can find her over at Cloggie Central. 
