Cape Cod Potato Chips

The Company

The company's logo is a woodcut of Nauset Light with the company name in Caslon Antique.

History

Cape Cod Potato Chips was founded in 1980 with the idea of offering healthier foods made with little processing, Lynn had started a natural foods store in the 1970s. Steve Bernard 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 and established Cape Cod Potato Chips with an 800-square-foot (74 m²) storefront in Hyannis, Massachusetts that could reach tourists, an industrial potato slicer he had bought for $3,000 and 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 in Thomasville, Pennsylvania.

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."

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, almost hitting Steve's daughter. 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 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.

Current varieties

Original

40% Reduced Fat

Sea Salt & Vinegar

Sea Salt & Cracked Pepper

Sweet Mesquite Barbecue

Sweet & Spicy Jalapeño

Sour Cream & Green Onion

40% Less Fat Aged White Cheddar & Sour Cream

40% Less Fat Sea Salt & Vinegar

40% Less Fat Sweet Mesquite Barbeque

40% Less Fat Sea Salt & Cracked Pepper

Limited Batch Back Bay Crab

Limited Batch Asiago and Herb

Limited Batch Chipotle Barbecue

Waffle Cut Sea Salt

Waffle Cut Barbecue Ranch

Waffle Cut Buffalo Cheddar

Waffle Cut Farm Stand Ranch

Limited batch Firecracker BBQ

Popcorn

Kettle Corn

Sea Salt

White Cheddar

Discontinued

Beachside Barbecue

Firecracker Barbecue

Honey Dijon

Buttermilk Ranch

Jalapeño & Aged Cheddar

Russet (Golden, Dark, and Robust)

Parmesean & Roasted Garlic

Harvest Gold

Five Cheese

No Salt

Waves (Original, Reduced Fat, and Golden Russet)

Sweet Potato (Lightly Salted and Cinnamon & Sugar)

Sierra Gold

"Whole Earth" line

Sour Cream & Chive

Other past snacks

Mild and Medium Black Bean and Corn Salsa

Mild and Hot Salsa

Dill and Herb Mix

French Onion Dip

Tortilla Chips (White Corn, Blue Sesame, Garlic Herb, Veggie)

Tortilla Strips (Yellow Corn)

Low-Carb Tortilla Strips

Popcorn (Sweet & Salty, Sweet Cream Butter)

Lighthouse Pretzels

In popular culture

Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan is a fictional character on the popular US television sitcom Friends (1994–2004), played by Lisa Kudrow, is seen eating a bag on Cape Cod chips in 1999 on Episode 21, Season Six (The One Where Ross Meets Elizabeth's Dad).

Japanese jazz pianist Hiromi Uehara 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 performing A Flock of Seagulls' 1982 hit "I Ran (So Far Away)".

On the Lil Wayne 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"