The Berger Cookie crowd crush

“I’ve never really seen one, but that’s got all the earmarks of a Berger Cookie stampede.”

The atlas of affection for Berger Cookies is primarily the Mid-Atlantic states, but nowhere is the passion for these handmade confections — chocolate-topped discs of shortbread — more intense than right here in Baltimore, where they are produced by DeBaufre Bakeries.

Monday night at my home, we had supper followed by a table read of my new play, “No Mean City: Baltimore 1966,” with the cast, producer Kevin Richardson and director Vanessa Eskridge. After the read and a discussion about the play, Ms. Eskridge announced that she had come with dessert — and left it on the kitchen table.

As soon as she said “I brought Ber —,” cast members started to stir from their chairs in the dining room. After Ms. Eskridge completed the phrase, “I brought Berger Cookies,” the cast let out a roar and the sudden movement of bodies was something like the scene at Penn Station when the doors of an overdue MARC train open. I wondered for a moment if my homeowner’s insurance covered death by crowd crush.

I am not exaggerating. You’d think Ms. Eskridge had just yelled fire in a theater.

But those familiar with Berger Cookies will understand this. I don’t know of any other product that can turn a group of Baltimoreans into a stampeding herd.