One of my old Italian customers drove up to the store yesterday in his
old, white El Camino. The one where he rebuilt the entire drivetrain and
installed a Fuel Injected Corvette Engine into. Looks stock from the
outside, down to the cruddy factory hupcaps and well-worn paint. Tony
always has been a character, and he ALWAYS has a story.
He's old school....he was old school before there even was an old school. That's how old school he is.
Right now I have a master carver working on a Phoenix for him to place atop a very valuable period mirror. Tony says "Ya know Duane, make sure this carver gets this bird right, willya? He should look really pissed off, and be a mess. Coming out of a fire n' all. Give him some Attitude, with a capital "A", don't make him look like some farm-bred Turkey".
So Tony comes up to me and hands me a small white box of cookies and
says 'Merry Christmas!' I say "Well thank you very much Tony, most
appreciated" and I go to place them on the desk and he SNATCHES them
away from me and with a twinkle in his eye he says "These are Termini
Brothers Cookies".
I cautiously reply: " You say that like I should know the name??"
Tony quips: "These are not for kids. This is a REAL cookie. The
finest Italian cookies in America. To get a better cookie than this,
you have to go to Sicily."
I look at the box. Plain, white, a hand-tied manila string wrapped
around it and a small label that says "Termini Bros. Since 1921" There
are no ingredient labels, no UPC code, no saucy descriptions, no
WARNING: CONTAINS NUTS, none of that. Just a plain label with the store
addresses, thats it.
"Tell me about these cookies, Tony". I egg him on, knowing damn well
he's going to tell me the story whether I want to hear it or not. But I
do. I love old school stories.
Tony starts up:
"Cookies are very important to the Italian People. A man is judged by
how good a cookie he serves to his guests - its a point of honor. Have
you ever been to an Italian wedding? A REAL Italian wedding? Well, if
you had you would know that the guests give hundreds, sometimes
thousands of dollars to the bride and groom - its traditional. We have
a lot of good traditions other than those Mafia bastards that came over
from Sicily - and the point is, if you have guests giving your children
money at there wedding, you don't serve them a crap cookie. Crappy
cookies are everywhere. And the talk about you if you serve them those crappy Italian cookies. So you don't do that.
You serve them Termini Bros. cookies. Now you have class. Now you show them that you care. And if you want fresh Termini Bros. cookies you have to drive to Philly to get them. This time of year, there is a 2-hour wait
to get in the door, but its not all bad - they put a Italian band out on
the street to play and serve hot drinks. The line goes around the block.
I drive up every year and buy thirty boxes, then deliver them the next
day. They get pissed at me for getting so many at one time, but I've
been doing it for forty years now and they know I come up this time
every year. Now when you go home and eat these cookies, have a cup of
coffee and set aside a little time to enjoy it. Don't pop one in your
mouth while you're running out to do errands. Savor the cookies. And
the best one is the Pignoli, I'll tell you that right up front. Best
cookie in the world - made from the finest ingredients."
There was a lot more, but you get the gist of it
Took the box home and we opened up after dinner. I selected the
Pignoli, just as Tony told me to. I took a small bite, to savor it. OH
MY.....OH MY! That's a damn fine cookie. I took another bite. That
might be the finest and best cookie I've ever had in my life. My son
agreed - but what does he know, he's only 16! An amazing treat. If
you're ever in Philly, I think you should go try some.
They have a website, and apparently they ship. Not cheap. But the good
stuff never is.
http://www.termini.com
FYI, from now on I can be bribed with Termini Bros. cookies.
