Cupcakegate 2K10 [An Explanation from Robicelli's Cupcakes]

Ok, really folks this is it...I promise. I just thought it was kind of crazytown that I read today on Grub Street that the fried cupcake thing at Chip Shop was invented by Robicelli Cupcakes as a publicity stunt. So I asked Allison from Robicelli's for one FINAL explanation of this whole shitshow.

From Allison:

Though I thought the silliness of “CupcakeGate” came to a close yesterday as Matt and I gave blogger “Fucked in Park Slope” free Elvis cupcakes to give out to the community, apparently it was rekindled today in comments made by their owner Mr. Sell to Grub Street.  I was not contacted by Grub Street to comment, so once again I appreciate the writers of “Fucked in Park Slope” for reaching out to me to tell our side of the story.

I have personally never met Mr. Sell, although my husband has (we’ll get to that later).  Over the past few months, my husband and I have been having semi-regular date nights at ChipShop, and have become friendly with the co-owner and FOH (front of house) manager Suzie. One night, after eating their sinful double-fried cherry pie, we began to wonder if it would be possible to fry our cupcakes, and if it would be any good.  Suzie told us it would be no problem to try out, so the next week we brought in an assortment for us and the entire staff to try.  Not only were they delicious, but several of the nearby tables seemed very interested in the dish.  After recounting this experience to another couple, they insisted we go again so they could try our cupcakes fried.  Again, we received a lot of attention from nearby diners, with a woman from the table next to me even taking a bite of my cupcake!  So my husband Matt spoke to Suzie and told her that he was going to bring her in a box of cupcakes, completely free of charge, to put on special.  If they sold, we would talk about possibly making them a more regular thing.  Suzie specifically requested the Elvis and Car Bombs, both of which she had tried.

Matt dropped off the cupcakes last Thursday, while Mr. Sell was inside filming something for the Travel Channel.  Mr. Sell was the first person who he spoke to, and informed him that he was dropping off cupcakes.  He then referred him to Suzie- perhaps he wasn’t aware of what we had discussed and thought that the cupcakes were for a personal order or a private party.  This is the only contact that either of us has had with Mr. Sell.  We delivered, free of charge, 27 cupcakes: 9 Elvises, 9 Car Bombs, and 9 Sticky Toffees.

We had posted about this on our Facebook page, and on Thursday night were speaking to someone from the blog “Cupcakes Take the Cake” who said she would post about the special.  Before we gave CTTC any statement, we called the ChipShop to make sure that announcing this to a blogger would be ok with them.  Again, we spoke to Suzie, and she said it was fine.  I don’t think either of us thought that the post was going to go near viral the way it did.

The next morning I saw dozens of mentions of the fried cupcake special on my Twitterfeed, on various food blogs, and had gotten several emails about it.  Apparently, Friday ALSO happened to be Elvis’ birthday, something I was completely unaware of.  My first reaction was that there was no way 27 cupcakes was going to be enough with this amount of press, so I started making more Elvis cupcakes.  I tried getting in touch with Suzie, but she wasn’t getting in until 4pm.  I finally reached her about 4:30, told her that the post went viral, and that I had more cupcakes in the event that she needed them.  This is when she informed me of the problem they were having- apparently when we had fried small batches of them like we had in the past the oil could handle it, but when done en masse there was an issue of the frosting melting and leaking into the oil. I don’t know if any of the conditions had changed since the last time we had attempted it (when we brought them in for our dinners, they had been frozen)- that can only be answered by them. She said they weren’t going to be able to offer it on the menu permanently because of this, but she was putting them in her basement walk-in and if anyone requested them she’d have them.  She also said that if people wanted to bring in frozen cupcakes on their own once in a while they could probably handle that- our cupcakes can be purchased at Blue Apron Foods not too far from there.  We of course were disappointed, but understood.  I informed her that if anything changed or if the demand got crazy that we would drop off more Elvises at any time, and that was all.  This is the last contact that I have had with ChipShop.

Apparently what I have learned from the bloggers that have contacted me is that some people got cupcakes, some didn’t, some were told the special didn’t exist, and some were only told that they had cupcakes after they complained loudly enough.  Being totally honest, I have NO IDEA what went on over there this weekend.  No one at ChipShop has been in contact with me, and I have heard so many different stories about what happened that I cannot make sense of it.  Today, Mr. Sell accused me of making the entire thing up for publicity in Grub Street, which is hurtful and completely untrue.  Why would I send tons of people down to a media behemoth like ChipShop only to disappoint them?  We are a very, very small company with a cult-like following and nowhere near the press that ChipShop has- making this up for publicity makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.  If it was honestly a problem with the oil and frying process like I was told, I see no reason why anyone would be upset about this.  Now this has blossomed into an entire conspiracy some are calling “Cupcakegate”, which when you think that all of this is about deep-fried cupcakes, is so very very silly.

I have read some very mean comments surrounding this whole thing, particularly about the ChipShop staff, which I find to be completely unnecessary.  Matt and I have repeatedly patronized ChipShop not for the food (as good as it is), but because of Suzie, waitress Carrie, and all of the staff that we have encountered there.  As people who have spent a long time in this business, they are every chef’s dream when it comes to FOH staff.  They are friendly, attentive, and personable, making the place a sort of “Cheers” with far more saturated fat.  I have always looked forward to going there for the chance to see them, and always walk out with a smile on my face.  I also cannot stress enough the contributions ChipShop has made to the Brooklyn culinary landscape.  I have spent all of my near 30 years living in Brooklyn, and let me remind you, back in the day NOBODY would come out here.  Even though locals knew what great food we had, we were still seen as some sort of a culinary “no-man’s-land” where few would dare to tread, and we continued to live in the shadow of all-powerful Manhattan.  With the arrival of ChipShop, their amazing food and the oodles of media attention they have received, Brooklyn finally began to make waves and move out of the shadow of the city.  And in the near decade they have been in existence, think of all the jobs they have provided for their community, and how many people have come to Park Slope to try their famous Fried Twinkie only to discover some of the other treasures Brooklyn has to offer.  All of these things should not be forgotten, and I for one as a native Brooklynite am very thankful to them for all of it.  

This is all I can tell you.  I honestly have no idea what happened on their end this weekend, and since no one from ChipShop has contacted either me or Matt we cannot make any comments on their behalf.  I am guessing that it is all due to some misunderstanding of Marx Brothers proportions, or perhaps they wanted to save the small amount they had for their devoted regulars who keep them in business week after week (which you cannot fault them for).  If Mr. Sell is interested in deep-fried cupcakes the way he implied in Grub Street, than I welcome him contacting me.  I have thought of several solutions that could potentially solve the leaky frosting/ oil problem, and would gladly jump at the opportunity to work with him on this project.  Remember, this controversy is about CUPCAKES- it is inherently completely ridiculous.  I thank everyone for their support, and am honestly humbled by the number of people who are fans of ours who actually went down to Park Slope to support us.  Matt and I do this to bring a little bit of happiness to the world, and to know that we are succeeding in some small way means the world to us.  We love all of you!

Awww, we <3 you too, Robicelli's! Espesh now that we've eaten 2 3 4 5 of your insanely delicious Elvis cupcakes!

Anyway.

I think the clear take away from this whole disaster is that some other restaurant in Park Slope needs to step up and volunteer to fry those suckers one weekend for a Robicelli cupcakes 2.0 event! I can attest to the fact that the excitement level over those deep-fried mofos was deafening, so can someone get on that shit ASAP please!