Why Bake When You Can Get Isgro?

The chocolate chip ricotta cookies I bring when homemade is not actually the better option.

I have a general rule about being invited to someone’s house:

I bring something.

Sometimes I make it.

Sometimes I spend an unreasonable amount of time deciding what it should be.

And sometimes I remember that I live near Isgro Pastries and there is absolutely no reason for me to turn on my oven.

This is one of those times.

Isgro has been in South Philly since 1904, which means they have been making pastries considerably longer than I have been making questionable decisions about what to bring to someone’s house.

I trust them.

And specifically, I trust the chocolate chip ricotta cookies.

They’re soft, glazed, drizzled with chocolate and exactly the kind of thing that looks good piled onto a platter with absolutely no additional contribution from me.

Homemade is not inherently better.

Not always, anyway.

There are times when making something yourself is part of the fun. And there are times when a bakery that has been doing this for more than a century is approximately ten minutes away.

Know when you’ve been beaten.

So I pick up a box, arrive with dessert, and accept whatever amount of credit people inexplicably give me for having purchased very good cookies.