Yesterday, my son, Silas, and I were walking home from his summer camp in the Mission District, and passed by Anthony's Cookies on Valencia Street—the simple, all-cookie bakery that opened a few months back and has since been quietly gaining a mini cult following for its very old-fashioned, no-frills approach. I'd had Anthony's Cookies a while ago when someone brought in a box of them to the office. The cookies and cream were by far my favorite, but for some reason I didn't write about them.

But it's amazing what putting a face to a cookie will do to make it taste memorable.

When Silas and I stopped into Anthony's yesterday, Anthony was there—all smiles and charm, as warm as the cookies coming off the racks—and, without knowing I write about food for a living, immediately saw the glazed look in Silas's eyes, brought on by the aroma of baking cookies, and asked him if he wanted to come back in the kitchen and get a cookie, "on him." Silas's first response was to cling to me in a moment of seven-year-old shyness (I think he thought "on him" meant that the cookie was somehow going to have to be removed from Anthony's actual person), but then when I said that "on him" meant Anthony was offering up a cookie for free, Silas practically pushed his way past me to get into the kitchen, emerging victoriously with a cookies-and-cream (boy after my own heart).

A little carton of milk and a cookie later—the kid who usually complains about walk home, was suddenly all about the journey. He's already talking about what flavor he's getting today, most likely banana.