Wednesday, November 15, 2017

The History of the Maurice Lenell Cooky Company, Chicago-Norridge, Illinois.

         
"Lenell Cookies," as it was first known, began as a bakery founded in 1925 by Swedish brothers Hans and Gunnar Lenell at 4349 North Avers Avenue in Chicago. 
Then the Lenells' joined with friend Agaard Billing in 1937 to start the company, which they changed its name to "Maurice Lenell Cooky Company," the misspelling paying homage to Hans and Gunnar's Swedish heritage. The Harlem Avenue plant at 4474 North Harlem Avenue in Norridge opened in 1956.
Maurice Lenell cookies were manufactured and sold in Norridge, primarily out of their Harlem Avenue factory store, "The Cookie Jar."
"His name was Erik Maurice Lenell, and he was the son of Hans Lenell," explains Jill Bocskay, who is Hans Lenell's granddaughter. "Hans started the company with his brother. But his son was actually the company's namesake," she says. "He chose that name because it was kind of an American-sounding name and less like a European or Swedish name. He thought it would be easier for people in the United States."
"In Chicago, everyone still talks to me about it," says Bocskay. "As a child, people would go there for every holiday to get lots of cookies for all their relatives, but also they would go there because you could see the cookies being made. It's so much a part of people's childhood."
  
For nearly 50 years, the Lenell family built a name and a loyal following for specialties like Raspberry Jelly Swirls, Almonettes, and my personal favorite, Pinwheels. Maurice Lenell closed its Norridge factory in 2008. 

The Cookie Jar Factory Store, Norridge, Illinois

Consolidated Biscuit Co. has been making the cookies since Maurice Lenell filed for bankruptcy in 2008. They bought Lenell's equipment and trademarks and promised to continue making the cookies, told the Tribune the equipment used to make the cookies had aged, and the undertaking became hard to justify. The company also said the Food and Drug Administration, and customers, wanted a revision to the recipe to remove partially hydrogenated oils. But they say that revision "changes the whole cookie." Consolidated Biscuit Co. stopped producing the beloved old-fashioned treats, and all that remains at the Cookie Store is left on the shelves. The company says it ceased production in 2010 because it was too expensive.

The newly formed Hearthside Foods, a Chicago-based baking company, acquired the Maurice Lenell brand in 2010.

"Maurice Lenell is a top-of-mind brand, and it's in the hearts of Chicagoans and part of their past," says Hearthside Vice President of Marketing Roy Jasper. Jasper was tasked with resurrecting Maurice Lenell. "Our job was to figure out how to re-establish that same feeling and emotion in the brand and carry it on," he says. Staying true to the Lenell tradition was imperative for the company's CEO, Rich Scalise, a native Chicagoan who had fond memories of his childhood treat.
The "Cookie Store and More" opened at 3829 North Harlem Avenue in Chicago in 2010 to serve as the unofficial outlet for the Maurice Lenell brand but closed its doors in August 2015.



Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
Sources: WTTW, WGN TV, NBC Chicago

17 comments:

  1. My daughter loves your cookies, especially the Pinwheel. How can I purchase some cookies?

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  2. I so loved their Norridge facility. On some days, when the wind was out of the South, we could smell what was cooking. I had some favorites, but I really enjoyed all of their cookies.

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  3. The best to remember these cookies is that the company was the sponsor for WFLD 32's Cartoon Town series.

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  4. My friend's mother used to work there. Fond memories of Norridge and those cookies..

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  5. I just found your blog because I had to look up Maurice Lenell after getting some cookies from a bakery in North Carolina via QVC. They reminded me of the taste of the ML Lemon daisy shaped cookies and the butterscotch stars. Miss ML cookies, because there was such a variety. Now, you go into the grocery, and there are fifty kinds of Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter, but not much else.

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  6. I grew up and brought my children up on Maurice Lenell. My daughter and I was discussing about our favorite her was the almond crest moon, and mines was the peanut butter and butterscotch. Loved them all. Such a really good taste. Still search for around Christmas time. 😒

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  7. I'm surprised the fire wasn't mentioned in this blog. I always loved being in the area and smelling the cookies when they were baking. Loved the pinwheel and chocolate chip ones!

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  8. My Grandmother's maiden name was Lenell and as a child, I always wondered where she would get these 10 lb. boxes of cookies. We were raised on Maurice Lenell Cookys, and dearly miss them now.

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  9. "One taste will tell / that Maurice Lenell / cookies are just / simply good." [Advertising on the WMAQ radio morning show with Henry Cooke. Background to breakfast when I was growing up.

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  10. I heard there is a bakery in Park Ridge that makes the pinwheel cookies

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  11. I remember roller skating at the Hub and smelling the cookies, great memory.

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    1. The Hub Roller Rink & Axle Roller Rinks.
      https://drloihjournal.blogspot.com/2016/12/hub-roller-rink-axle-roller-rinks-of.html

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    2. 😁 I went to the axle roller rink on a regular basis and smelled those wonderful cookies every morning driving down Harlem ave. Looked this up today because I make pinwheels at Christmas time because my husband loves them. They are not as good as Maurice Lenell but anytime I try to bake a copycat cookie it never is the same. They may use oil or lard instead of real butter and preservatives of course but I never get that crispy texture like store bought cookies.

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    3. The two scents that I will always associate with the Axle (nee Hub) in Norridge is the musty smell of the skate rental area that somewhat permanently permeated the east end of the building, and when the winds were blowing right, the aroma of fresh-baking Lenell cookies that would waft through the windows that were in the walls along the rink floor. A narrow alley was all that separated the Axle and the Lenell bakery.

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  12. Do the original Maurice Lenel recipes exist?

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    Replies
    1. I'd say so. Other companies have at some point baked these cookies using the original recipe.

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