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Hub stricken by cupcake mania
By adamg on Mon, 06/18/2012 - 8:52am
The Boston Foodie reports people stood in line for two hours on Saturday for the opening of a new cupcake joint on Newbury Street:
In front of me was a mother and daughter, self-professed foodies. The mother asked me: "Do I really want to wait two hours? I could just come back tomorrow and pay the $2.75 for a taste of one." Good point. I told her I was tempted to do the same but did not want to miss out on the experience of this weirdness. She chatted me up and I explained that I was a food writer so this was just not just a waste of two hours. I was actually at work. She loved that idea, that this could be a job.
Inexplicably, Molly Galler passed and instead visited Monumental Cupcakes in JP, where they'd made cupcakes just for her and her dad:
When it was our turn to order I told the woman behind the counter that I had spoken to someone on Twitter about special flavors for today. She asked, "Your name?" When I told her she said, "Oh yes! We made Heath bar for your dad!" I could feel my smile growing wider. How cool is that?
Of course we ordered one Heath bar cupcake, but we also wanted to try a second flavor. After much deliberation we settled on the Belgian chocolate.
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Comments
Georgetown Cupcakes is not
Georgetown Cupcakes is not exactly a friendly shop. They had their doors open and looked ready for business the other day. A few of us walked in and we were promptly told unless we were invited, we were not allowed in since it was a private party. There was no 'please stop in tomorrow when we're officially open' and no sign on the door letting everyone know they were closed for a private party. A frosty reception from a cupcake shop? Please! I'll stick to Sweet!
If you call yourself a foodie
You deserve to wait at least 2 hours for yet another overpriced cupcake.
"foodie" is the new
"foodie" is the new self-defeating term. Like "thinking outside the box", which if anyone says they do, they inherently do not. "Foodie" is a pretty good indicator of meaning "I watch cooking on tv and am swept up in the culture of food, but really do not think in critical terms in my own right--i'm here to consume what I'm told I should to pull off this avatar I like".
Yesterday
I got a chocolate with salted caramel frosting from the Cupcakory truck with no line and a smile. The cupcake thing has gotten completely out of hand, but I still love theirs.
(And I have to commend Treat in Needham and Glutenus Minimus in Belmont for making gluten free cupcakes that I can bring to birthday parties, meaning my daughter can have a sweet even if she can't eat the birthday cake.)
Cupcakes? Is this 2002?
It was exactly 10 years ago that Carrie Bradshaw first bit into a Magnolia's cupcake on sex and the City, thus setting off a slew of cupcake bakeries in NYC - in 2002. Of course, sophisticated Boston, always ahead of the trend, is innundated with cupcake shops in 2012? Who needs a time machine when you've got Boston?
Most of the NYC cupcake shops closed down years ago. Trend over. But not in Boston. Makes me want to get my hands on a 10-year-old copy of New York Magazine and see what food trends were big back then - and then sell whatever was big then from a foodtruck in Boston where it will all be new again for the Boston "foodie." Look for my pea tendrils and truffled french fries truck soon!
get over Sex and the City already!
Believe it or not, NYers don't give a f*ck if cupcakes were first trendy over a decade ago. The line is still out the door to get into Magnolia on most nights.
How boring to be so concerned with which trends are hot and which are over.
I very much doubt
that the people waiting in line at Magnolia are New Yorkers. In fact, I'd guess from the dozens of tour busses there every day, those people might be...tourists. From Peoria and Wichita. Which explains why the rend is just hitting Boston 10 years after the fact.
I guess you showed me!
I guess you showed me! Wowzas!
Are they wearing scrunchies??
Sometimes I forget how good that show was.
Hey now, leave pea tendrils out of this!
They use them in Chinese dishes and they're absolutely delicious. Try them at Taiwan Cafe one day. (Oh and truffled fries aren't bad either)
mmmmm
Nothing like a sugary cupcake washed down with a 32 ounce soda.
As one who waited in the long
As one who waited in the long line on Saturday, I'll make two points:
1. My 13 year old daughter loves to bake and is a fan of the DC Cupcakes show. For her the wait was less about the cupcakes themselves, and more about meeting the two women who founded it, getting their autographs, and having her picture taken with them. (And for the record, we too bought cupcakes from the Cupcakory truck on Sunday.)
2. Sure, cupcakes are not cutting edge anymore but saying the trend is over? I'd say that's premature. There are still plenty of cupcake places in NYC. Georgetown Cupcake is a multimillion dollar business that just expanded into NYC, Boston, Bethesda and is opening in LA in the fall. They may not be quirky or hip anymore but the trend is far from over.
This sounds really cool... a
This sounds really cool... a bakery that doesn't sell anything else. What a good idea for a store.
Now bored rich hipster kids can go down to Johnny Cupcakes for an ugly $40 t-shirt and get an overpriced cupcake at the same time for a truly meta-ironic experience. I personally find it really difficult to mix flour milk and eggs and throw it in the oven, and I love blindly following trends that make no sense so this is great for me. God bless these people.
Unless you are Kristin Wiig
In Bridesmaids, when she whips herself up a single, exquisite cupcake in a fit of emotional angst, who does that? That's why they get to charge $2.75 or whatever--so that you can walk in and get ONE cupcake and not have to shop, assemble, whip, bake, frost, do the dishes and then figure out what to do with the other eleven cupcakes. I mean, if you carry that to its logical end, why do we need Dunkin' Donuts when everyone can set up a fryolator at home and create their own perfect glazed cruller in their own kitchen? Which, btw, would be awesome, but...
Avoid the lines..
Cupcake City in Reading is to die for! And hipster free!
Mumbles needs to send out the
Mumbles needs to send out the food police and shut down these purveyors of sugar. Think of the (fat) children!