The Chicago Hotel Where You Can Taste The First Brownie Recipe Ever Invented

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, pending transportation, anyway.)

The humble brownie started life in the kitchen of the Palmer House Hotel, a legendary establishment built by Potter Palmer as a wedding gift to his new wife, Bertha. (They were the kind of rich where you could give someone a hotel as a wedding present.) After it was burned down by the cataclysmic Chicago Fire, the hotel was rebuilt and reopened in 1875, and primed to host a ton of people for the World's Fair in 1893.  Bertha asked the hotel chefs to devise a dessert that was dense and decadent, yet could also be conveniently transported for her meetings with fellow rich women on the World's Fair board. Thus was the brownie born, although it wouldn't get its name until a few years later. Origin stories vary, but one frequently cited source for the name is a recipe for "Bangor Brownies," which ran in the Boston Globe in 1905.

Unlike some other historic hotels (pour one out for the Toll House Inn), the Palmer House is still standing today — although now it's owned by Hilton rather than the Palmer family. The establishment still radiates Gilded Age glamor, from its stately lobby to the gorgeous art nouveau peacock doors that greet guests. But if you want a tastier way to go back in time, you can try the hotel's original brownie recipe for yourself. Available as a classy restaurant dessert as well as individually wrapped treats for a quick snack, the brownie has been described as an altogether different beast from the kind you might make from a boxed mix you bought at Aldi: richer, darker, and elevated by a tart apricot glaze.

If you don't have much of a sweet tooth, though, you still have plenty of options at Palmer House. The Lockwood Restaurant offers entrees like the Lockwood Burger (made with bacon jam, cheddar cheese, and a secret sauce), a seared ahi tuna sandwich, and two different kinds of steak, a New York strip and a dry-aged ribeye. And if you're after an old-fashioned experience (whether or not you have an Old Fashioned while you're there), you can head over to Potter's Bar, a speakeasy which offers an array of classic cocktails and appetizers to share.