Nostalgia. Does it make the world go ’round?

Often it’s disguised as “innovation.”

I like Christina Tosi, and Milk Bar treats are something I wish I could have tried before going gluten- and sugar-free (along with Salt and Straw Ice Cream).

But there’s a fundamental difference between Salt and Straw and Milk Bar. Salt and Straw is recreating a common food (ice cream) with interesting flavors. Many other people are doing the same thing, but Salt and Straw is doing it well. Allegedly (having never tasted it).

Milk Bar, on the other hand, is doing some interesting things (I like the “naked cake” idea with the formula for a good balance of cake/texture/filling) but with a patina of nostalgia–the cereal milk, all the cornflakes, the birthday cake flavors. All things that take people of a certain age (Old Millennials, like myself–in their 30s) straight back to their childhoods.

All the comfort of Saturday morning cartoons, bowls of sugary cereal and the box cakes that our moms made for us on our birthdays–but that we’re too sophisticated for now, of course. We’ve moved to The City and identify as Progressive and have left that parochial lifestyle behind (except, of course, when we haven’t).

I think of it as “nostalgia porn,” which first occurred to me while rewatching an episode of Mad Men. It’s the second episode of the entire show, and the setup maybe acts as a thesis for the rest of the series*

As Betty pauses from gossiping to chastise her daughter, our minds leap immediately to the warning we see now on every plastic bag–NOT A TOY! KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN! DANGER!

So when Betty prioritizes her clothes over DANGER, we laugh. (Thanks, cognitive dissonance.)

But we also have the opportunity to feel smug. How could Betty love her clothes more than her own child?! What a spoiled bitch! Everybody knows ™ that Sally could DIE playing like that! Look at how safe we keep our children now! And smoking around children??? Quelle horreur! We have come so far! I would never do that!

A show like Mad Men allows us to cast the past in a glamourous light while simultaneously decrying how backward it was. We feel good for “progressing,” and also can pat ourselves on the back for emulating the style (or creating the style, for the older generation.

That is what I think of Milk Bar, to an extent. We would never think of eating sugary cereal for breakfast anymore (think of the! it would throw off my macros for at least three days! and Lucky Charms aren’t available at Whole Foods anyway!)–but we can indulge in cereal milk on cheat day.

We’re raiding the past to make ourselves feel good while simultaneously also feeling good because we’re more progressive now.

Christina Tosi credits her midwestern roots for much of her inspiration. Her grandmother’s recipes form the basis of many of her most popular offerings like Corn Cookies or Crack Pie.

At the same time, it’s not enough simply to recreate those recipes. They must be deconstructed and reinvented. Rainbow chip birthday cake used to raise the profile of The Rock. Would Christina Tosi’s grandmother vote for The Rock? (I don’t know.)

I could see this being used for good–to wake people up to the fact that many of our core values come from a more wholesome time and place. Perhaps it could be the start of a reawakening.

Considering the way that Coastal Elites view flyover country, I see this as yet another iteration of disdain for American values. Taking the enjoyable core of something and twisting it beyond recognition to fit into their progressive paradigm.

(Let us put aside for a minute the issue of rainbow chip birthday cake being sold to us by the corporate-industrial complex as an easy-but-soulless alternative for delicious, homemade cake, also subverting culture. It’s turtles all the way down, people.)

I think this is intentional in Mad Men. I doubt Christina Tosi is thinking about intentionally subverting midwestern values. Obviously this approach sells well. I personally take the bait–I greatly enjoy Mad Men and would 100% eat at Milk Bar if I could.

We have our cake and eat it too…but at what cost?

*Put a fork in that one, I’m going to have to explore it further. Maybe an excuse for a Mad Men rewatch?