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The Chicago Hotel Where You Can Taste The First Brownie Recipe Ever Invented By Joe Hoeffner Oct. 5, 2025 6:00 pm EST

A surprising number of dishes you come across every day were invented in the inns and hotels of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chocolate chip cookies, for instance, hail from Massachusetts' Toll House Inn (in what was often reputed to be dumb luck, although it was no such thing ). Parker House rolls were also first baked in a Massachusetts hotel — although you don't get any points for guessing which one. (Boston's Parker House was also the birthplace of the Boston Cream Pie, an enduring lesson in perfectionism .) And not only were brownies invented in a Chicago hotel, you can go there right now and taste the original recipe. (Well, pen

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