EXCLUSIVE: Animal Tooth Found Inside Cookie from Chip City says UES Couple 

A Yorkville couple is searching for answers after they say they made a ghastly discovery in a cookie from Chip City’s Upper East Side location, when one of them bit into an animal’s tooth— which experts say is likely from a rodent— that was baked into one of the popular shop’s cookies.

“There’s only one Cannoli Cookie and it was such a hit we had to bring it back around!” Chip City announced on Twitter on the morning of Sunday, June 5th.

“Start your week off right and stop by your nearest Chip City location today to give it a shot,” the tweet continued.

That very afternoon, Nabiha Ali says her sister Angela stopped in Chip City’s UES shop at 1543 Second Avenue, between East 80th and 81st Streets, to pick up some of their decadent cannoli cookies, which had just returned to the menu.

Made from sugar cookies mixed with toasted pistachios and cannoli shells then stuffed with cannoli cream in the center, they live up to the hype.

“My sister did a cookie run,” said Ali, explaining to Upper East Site how she and her partner Juan loved Chip City, and had even hoped to have the company’s delicious cookies served at the their wedding.

“We’ve been wanting to try the cannoli cookies from Chip City for like weeks. We finally got it. So, I was like let’s have our cookies,” Ali continued.

That’s when she says her partner Juan picked up his half of the cannoli cookie they had gotten from her sister to share, then bit down into it, his teeth stopping at something hard. 

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“I’m like two bites in and he’s like ‘what the fuck is this?’” Nabiha continued, “and he like pulls it out of his mouth.”

The foreign object was easily identifiable, she says, and it was not a toasted pistachio or cannoli shell— because it clearly looked like a tooth or claw. 

“Whatever it is, it’s inedible so it shouldn’t be baked into a cookie, period,” Ali said, “but, it definitely looks like it came from an animal.” 

Their first instinct was to contact Chip City to let them know what they had just found in the cookie.

“I’m repulsed,” Nabiha tweeted to the cookie company, including photos of what we know know is an animal tooth.

“[Definitely] won’t be eating the remaining two cookies we got… what a shame.”

After tweeting as well as sending a pair of direct messages to the cookie purveyor on Instagram, Nabiha received no response. 

That’s when she turned to Upper East Site for help.

“I gave them the chance to handle on their own,” Nabiha told us, “and when they didn’t, I reached out to you.”

Nabiha and Juan don’t have the receipt from the cookie shop that day, but did share with Upper East Site a screenshot of the charge from Chip City on Angela’s credit card statement, which processed a few hours before Nabiha tweeted to the company.

They also held on to the cookie itself, keeping it frozen as evidence.

In uncharted territory, we first brought the foreign object to Upper East Side dentist Dr. Brittany Baum— who studied at NYU College of Dentistry and did her residency at Mount Sinai Hospital— to give the suspected animal’s tooth a thorough examination.

“My other thought is that it could be like a little claw, but because of what’s inside of it, it’s a tooth,” said Dr. Baum.

She also noted to us the area on the interior of the tooth where the nerve would have connected deep inside, making it impossible for the object to be anything else.

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Thankfully, Dr. Baum says Juan doesn’t have anything to worry about health-wise, since the tooth had been baked inside the cookie.

After confirming the suspected tooth was in fact an animal’s tooth, we turned to an Upper East Side veterinarian to find out what kind of animal this tooth belongs.

Dr. Stephanie Austin examined the animal’s tooth in person, took photos and then consulted with other veterinarians— before coming back with a stomach-turning answer to the mystery. 

The tooth was too small to belong to a cat or raccoon, Dr. Stephanie told Upper East Site, and likely had come from a mouse or a rat— but then things somehow got even worse.

A colleague had explained to Dr. Austin that the shop should “check their flour supply, because what probably happened is that a mouse or rat got into the flour supply and died. And during the sifting process the tooth slipped through.”

“Apparently it’s not that uncommon,” she added.

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Armed with the results of our own expert examinations, we reached out to Chip City on behalf of Juan and Nabiha, sharing photos of the animal’s tooth with the company, in order to get the explanation and refund the couple had sought.

Rather than apologizing and refunding the their money, Chip City told Upper East Site in a dismissive, unsigned email that for a refund, Juan, Nabiha and Angela would have to contact them directly– either by phone, email or social media— which they had already done without success.

Chip City also offered to give us a tour their facility in College Point, Queens, but gave no explanation for the tooth and provided no comment or statement to share with the public. The company stopped responding after their initial reply.

After learning of the cookie company’s flippant response to what she believes is a public health concern, Nabiha told us that she and Juan have “both been working in the food industry in the area for years, which is why this is extra disappointing.”

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