Cape Cod Potato Chips is an American snack food company best known for their brand of kettle-cooked
potato chips
A potato chip (North American English; often just chip) or crisp (British and Irish English) is a thin slice of potato that has been either deep fried, baked, or air fried until crunchy. They are commonly served as a snack, side dish, or ap ...
. The company is headquartered in
Hyannis, Massachusetts, on
Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...
. Cape Cod Potato Chips is a brand owned by Campbell Soup Company since 2018.
History
Cape Cod Potato Chips was founded in 1980 by Steve Bernard and his brother, Jude, with the idea of offering healthier foods made with little processing. Steve's wife, Lynn had opened the store, "Ardklin Natural Foods", in Harwich in the 1970s. Bernard lamented the lack of healthy snacks. He pursued adding potato chips to the mix after tasting a natural potato chip from a successful company based in Hawaii. In 1980, he sold his auto parts business in for a potato chip business. He bought an storefront in
Hyannis, Massachusetts, in a prime place to reach tourists, as well as an industrial potato slicer for $3,000. He had almost no knowledge of the snack food business other than what he learned in a week-long course on potato chip making at
Martin's Potato Chips Martin's Potato Chips is a manufacturer of potato chips, popcorn, and other salted snack foods. Martin's headquarters is located in south-central Pennsylvania, at 5847 Lincoln Highway West in Thomasville; the company distributes to retailers in Pe ...
in
Thomasville, Pennsylvania
Thomasville is an unincorporated community in Jackson Township of York County, Pennsylvania, United States, west of the city of York. The community is home to Martin's Potato Chips and York Airport.
Schools
The community is located within th ...
.
[
]
Unlike typical commercial brands made using a continuous frying process, in which potato slices travel through a tub of oil on a conveyor belt, Cape Cod chips are cooked in batches in kettles, frying them in a shallow vat in oil while stirring with a rake, producing a crunchier chip. Snack Food Association president James A. McCarthy noted that Bernard "didn't invent the kettle chip, but he was involved in bringing it back to prominence." Before the 1920s, this was the way potato chips had been made.
The company struggled for months after it opened on July 4, 1980. The following winter a car crashed through the front window of the store, just missing Steve's daughter and wife. An insurance payment and publicity from the accident helped tide the company over until the following summer, by which time sales were substantial, and the company's chips were being sold through a number of supermarket chains.[
The company was acquired by ]Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC is an American brewing company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2008, it has been wholly owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV ( AB InBev), now the world's largest brewing company, which owns multiple ...
in 1985, and operated as a division of its Eagle Snacks unit. Sales of the chips were up to 80,000 bags a day by the end of the following year, reaching the entire East Coast, with sales of $16 million annually. Bernard bought the company and its factory back from Anheuser-Busch in 1996. Snack food company Lance Inc. bought the company from Bernard in 1999, by which time annual sales had reached $30 million. In 2010, Lance Inc. merged with Snyder's of Hanover. The Campbell Soup Co. would later go on to acquire Snyder's of Hanover in December 2017.
In popular culture
Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan (Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Valerie Kudrow ( ; born July 30, 1963) is an American actress, producer, and screenwriter. She rose to fame for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the sitcom ''Friends'' (1994–2004), which has since been named one of the greatest television cha ...
), a fictional character on the popular US television sitcom '' Friends'' (1994–2004), is seen eating a bag of Cape Cod Chip's white cheddar popcorn in 1999 on Episode 21, Season Six ("The One Where Ross Meets Elizabeth's Dad").
Japanese jazz pianist Hiromi Uehara
, known professionally as Hiromi, is a Japanese jazz composer and pianist. She is known for her virtuosic technique, energetic live performances and blend of musical genres such as stride, post-bop, progressive rock, classical and fusion in her ...
recorded a composition titled "Cape Cod Chips" on her 2009 solo piano album '' Place to Be''.
In the spring of 2012, Cape Cod Potato Chips launched a television commercial starring a band of computer-generated seagulls
Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, ...
performing A Flock of Seagulls
A Flock of Seagulls are an English new wave band formed in Liverpool in 1979. The group, whose best-known line-up comprised Mike Score, Ali Score, Frank Maudsley and Paul Reynolds, hit the peak of their chart success in the early 1980s.
The ...
' 1982 hit "I Ran (So Far Away)
"I Ran (So Far Away)", also released as "I Ran", is a song by English new wave band A Flock of Seagulls. It was released in 1982 as their third single and it was the second single from their self-titled debut album. It topped the chart in ...
". This was the first commercial made for television by the company.
On the Lil Wayne
Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (born September 27, 1982), known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record executive. His career began in 1995, at the age of 12, when he was signed by rapper Birdman, joining ...
mixtape ''Sorry 4 the wait 2'' in the song "No Haters" Cape Cod Chips are referenced in the lyrics "Pockets lookin' like the Blob, chips like Cape Cod"
See also
* List of popcorn brands
This is a list of notable popcorn brands. Popcorn, also known as popping corn, is a type of corn (maize, ''Zea mays var. everta'') that expands from the kernel and puffs up when heated. Popcorn is able to pop because its kernels have a hard moist ...
References
Sources
*
*
Lance inc Announces Agreement with Cape Cod Potato Chips
*
*
*
How Potato Chips Stack Up
ref>
*
External links
*
Virtual Factory Tour
{{Popcorn brands
Snack food manufacturers of the United States
Companies based in Massachusetts
Massachusetts cuisine
Barnstable, Massachusetts
Products introduced in 1980
Lance Inc. brands
Popcorn brands
Brand name potato chips and crisps