The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 25 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Tosi: Product collaborations provide free earned media without marketing spend
“And for us, what's economically savvy about it is, It's free earned brand and media as opposed to needing your sales channels to drive a revenue that brings enough money to like the EBITDA line that you can invest in it from a marketing standpoint.”
Tosi: Milk Bar's brand presence is intentionally larger than its revenue
“We've intentionally built our brand in a way that's much bigger and broader than what, you know, the top line revenue of our P&L is. Because that's the challenge. It's the challenge for our sales channels to try and catch the size and reach of the brand.”
Christina Tosi: Crisis Marketing Demands Unproduced, Human Connection Over Polish
“Like, I think we can do better, but in a really funny way, better means more human, and better means less produced, and better means making a commitment to something, to people, to doing something every day, because I think our reality is so shattered, and how…”
Tosi: The world did not need more traditional bakeries
“The world doesn't need more bakeries. We don't need more chocolate chip cookies. We need more of the theory of that, but in a way that like inspires and is sticky and is a place that anyone can come and people can get like, just feel a little seen, get a littl…”
Christina Tosi Claims Nobody Used Cereal Milk in Desserts Before Her
“No one was setting it into a panna cotta, swirling it into a soft serve, or thinking about it, through that lens.”
Christina Tosi Refuses Finance Advice to Use Cheaper Butter
“I am not changing our fancy, very expensive butter that the team that does the financial analysis of food causes, like, please, please, a cheaper butter, and it's like, no, this is what it's built on.”
Tosi: Fine dining desserts fail when detached from familiar nostalgic indulgence
“For me, the fine dining part of desserts that I have always struggled to resonate with were the ones that feel like they're so far over your head or they're so luxurious that there's no, like, connection to what your taste buds know to be, like, sweet and guil…”
Tosi stepped down as Milk Bar CEO to maintain creative focus
“And my biggest thing was I am shortchanging the milk bar business holding onto the CEO seat. I would much rather focus on what I'm specifically and uniquely positioned to do, which is like the creative, the culinary, right?”
Christina Tosi Expanded Milk Bar Products Into Whole Foods and Amazon
“We just launched Into Whole Foods and I think Next Week on Amazon.”
Christina Tosi Realized Constant Hustle Underperformed Protecting Her Health and Time
“I was traveling around like a crazy person and doing all these things because I thought that is what being someone committed to their business, being someone that was
Driven and successful and hardworking looked like.
And I'm realizing that I left so much on t…”
Christina Tosi: E-Commerce Cannot Offset Milk Bar's Lost Retail Margins
“Online? They're totally different margins. So even where we can earn back some of what we've lost in stores no matter how far we go online, our margin structure is still really in a tricky place.”
Christina Tosi Furloughed Half of Milk Bar's Staff Early in Pandemic
“Pretty early on, about three or four weeks ago we had to furlough half of our team.”
Tosi: Crack Pie had a NYC cult following before Milk Bar opened
“Instead they're freaking out about this, like, gooey, buttery, delicious mess of a pie that they named Crack Pie, and we have since renamed for other reasons but it was this thing that lived in the underbelly of New York City dining before I even opened Milk B…”
Christina Tosi Launched Milk Bar Without a Formal Business Plan
“No, cook would ever do that. No, I was young, and I didn't, Know enough to know any better. I just said yes and jump.”
Tosi: Milk Bar waited eight years before raising outside growth capital
“I think the first time that it started, that I started really taking that conversation seriously was two years ago when I decided to raise money to grow the business for the first time, to actually start taking this business, which was eight years in at the ti…”
Tosi: Milk Bar is expanding into grocery store aisles
“We're coming to the aisles of the grocery store. Like, that's our space. One, that's where my imagination started. It's where I still go, and that's where we're going. That's what we're doing.”
Christina Tosi Says Milk Bar Will Never Serve Green Tea Flavors
“I will, there will never be anything green tea flavored on the menu at Milk Bar, because it's like the most beautiful PTSD, even though I so appreciate why other people love it. For me, it's something completely different and personal.”
Milk Bar Was Initially Funded by a Loan From Momofuku
“He loaned me money through our, through the hold co of Momofuku, and it was, I was very well versed at operating on a shoestring budget, because that's how we built the Momofuku empire, and so, It was a loan that we agreed that I'd pay back”
Tosi: Milk Bar was envisioned as a modern Dairy Queen and Baskin-Robbins
“The original, like, inspiration for Milk Bar was, it's gonna be, like, a modern day take on Dairy Queen slash Baskin Robbins, but I'm also gonna serve a bunch of baked goods, cause that's just what I love to do.”
Christina Tosi's Family Handmade Custom Face Masks for Milk Bar Employees
“My mom and my aunt, who, like, make all of our headscarves, I said, hey, if we get you every single person's name and their color preference or what have you, will you make us face masks? Because who we are is still the same. How we might be feeling is differe…”
Tosi: Milk Bar cookie price rose less than $1 over 11 years
“Our cookie over 11 years hasn't even gone up a whole dollar in price.”
Tosi: Milk Bar Launched Shipping Using Drugstore Ice Packs and Email Orders
“I went to, like, all the local drugstores and bought those, like, break and freeze ice packs, and then went to all of, like, the UPS and USPS stores and was like, I'll take all the boxes. I'll take all the boxes, and just showed up at the bakery and was like, …”
Tosi: Milk Bar's cornflake cookie was created from burnt cornflake crunch
“Some of the things that are still on the menu at Milk Bar today, like the cornflake chocolate chip marshmallow cookie, was somebody burnt the cornflake crunch that was used for another dessert And I was like, well, we're not going to throw this away. We were, …”