History
A noted local athlete who starred for his high school basketball team and later dominated municipal tennis tournaments for more than a decade, [3] Ted Drewes started making frozen custard while working for a carnival and opened his first fixed location near St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1929. [4] The first St. Louis shop began serving in 1930 on Natural Bridge Avenue near Goodfellow Blvd. Less than a year later, it was moved westward along the avenue. [5] A second location was opened at 4224 South Grand Blvd. in 1931. In 1941, a third location opened at 6726 Chippewa Street, on one of the alignments of U.S. Route 66 through St. Louis. The Natural Bridge and Florida locations had closed by 1958, but the Chippewa and South Grand locations remain open. [6] When Ted Drewes, Sr. died in 1968, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted his passing in an obituary that focused on his tennis. [3]
For decades, the Grand Avenue location was the flagship store, serving what was then a densely populated urban area in the neighborhood of Dutchtown and near the neighborhoods of Tower Grove South, Gravois Park, Bevo Mill, Holly Hills, and Carondelet. Each year, it would open in April and close on October 31. The Chippewa location served as an outpost near the city limits for travelers heading to or returning from an Ozark weekend getaway. In those days, it was open from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
Between the population shifting west in the city and Route 66 drawing more crowds, the Chippewa store became the flagship location. Its season extended to more of the year, while the shop on Grand shortened its seasonal operation. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Ted Drewes began selling live Christmas trees. [6] In the wake of the transition, the Chippewa store expanded its building and bought a neighboring property to accommodate parking. By 2006, the company was making more than 150,000 gallons of custard every year. [7]
The Chippewa store is closed only during the month of January. In 2013, it closed briefly after a minor electrical fire. [8] The South Grand location now operates only seasonally during summer months.
In 2013, Ted Drewes Jr. said he has declined numerous requests to franchise nationally. [6]
Due to effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, the South Grand location closed temporarily prior to the summer of 2020. It reopened for the summer of 2023. [9]
On August 26, 2024, Ted Drewes Jr. died at the age of 96. [10]
In the press
Ted Drewes' shops and frozen custard have drawn the attention of The New York Times several times over the years, including in 1986, [11] 1997, [12] and 1999. [13] In 2004, reporter R.W. Apple Jr. extolled the custard in an article on Midwestern sweets. [7]
In 1986, The New York Times revealed that the origin of the Blizzard from Dairy Queen was an attempt by a franchisee to mimic the Ted Drewes concrete. [11]
In 2006, Alton Brown featured the Route 66 location on the Food Network show Feasting on Asphalt .
In 2010, Bobby Flay recommended Ted Drewes on the "Sweet Tooth" episode of The Best Thing I Ever Ate .
In 2011, Ted Drewes was featured in a "Route 66" episode of Man v. Food Nation , hosted by Adam Richman.
In 2014, the Riverfront Times 2014 award for "Best Frozen Custard in St. Louis" went to Ted Drewes.
In 2017, Ted Drewes was named "Best Ice Cream Shop in the World" by SoolNua, an Irish marketing firm that publishes a world ice cream index every year. [14]
In 2024, Ted Drewes was featured in History Channel's The Food That Built America . During the episode entitled "Ice Cream Revolution", it is stated that the concept of the Blizzard from Dairy Queen was copied from the Ted Drewes concrete.
Ice cream is a frozen dessert typically made from milk or cream that has been flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit, such as strawberries or peaches. Food colouring is sometimes added in addition to stabilizers. The mixture is cooled below the freezing point of water and stirred to incorporate air spaces and prevent detectable ice crystals from forming. It can also be made by whisking a flavoured cream base and liquid nitrogen together. The result is a smooth, semi-solid foam that is solid at very low temperatures. It becomes more malleable as its temperature increases.
Dairy Queen (DQ) is an American multinational fast food chain founded in 1940 and currently headquartered in Bloomington, Minnesota. The first Dairy Queen was owned and operated by Sherb Noble and first opened on June 22, 1940, in Joliet, Illinois. It serves a variety of hot and fried food, as well as original frozen dairy products that vary from location to location.
Frozen custard is a frozen dessert that is a type of ice cream that is made with egg yolks in addition to cream and sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and an additional flavoring such as cocoa, vanilla, or fruit such as strawberries or peaches. It is usually kept at a warmer temperature compared to ice cream, and typically has a denser consistency.
Graeter's is a regional ice cream chain based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1870 by Louis C. Graeter, the company has since expanded to 56 retail locations selling ice cream, candy and baked goods in the Midwestern United States. It further distributes its ice cream to 6,000 stores throughout the country. As of 2017, the company had 1,050 employees and $60 million in revenue.
Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, or simply Freddy's, is an American fast-casual restaurant chain based in Wichita, Kansas. Its menu includes steakburgers, Vienna Beef hot dogs, and chicken sandwiches. The company also provides frozen custard and specialty sundaes.
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Soft serve, also known as soft ice, is a frozen dessert and variety of ice cream, similar to conventional ice cream, but softer and less dense due to more air being introduced during freezing. Soft serve has been sold commercially since the late 1930s in the United States.
Shrewsbury–Lansdowne I-44 station is a light rail station on the Blue Line of the St. Louis MetroLink system. This station is located on an embankment near Lansdowne Avenue and River Des Peres Boulevard in St. Louis near its boundary with Shrewsbury in St. Louis County. The city limits between the two communities runs through the northern portion of the 800 space park and ride lot.
Mövenpick Ice Cream is a brand of ice cream of Swiss origin produced initially by Nestlé. Since 2016, Froneri - a joint venture between Nestlé and R&R Ice Cream - manufactures it.
The Crossings at Northwest is a mixed-use commercial center containing 400,000 SF of retail and 500,000 SF of office uses located in St. Ann, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. It was redeveloped from the old Northwest Plaza. The former mall comprised nearly 1,770,000 square feet (164,438.4 m2) of gross leasable area, making it the 27th largest mall in the United States according to the International Council of Shopping Centers prior to its closure. With a total of 1.9 million square feet (180,000 m2) of enclosed space, it was the largest enclosed mall in the state of Missouri. The mall featured nine anchor stores and more than 210 stores at its peak.
Frozen dessert is a dessert made by freezing liquids, semi-solids, and sometimes solids. They may be based on flavored water, on fruit purées, on milk and cream, on custard, on mousse (semifreddo), and others. It is sometimes sold as ice-cream in South Asia and other countries.
A dairy mix is the blend of milk, cream, sugar, stabilizers, and vanilla packaged by a dairy for commercial use. This mix can either be made directly into ice cream or placed into containers for the use in soft serve, frozen custard, or ice cream machines. Dairy mix used in restaurants can be also used to make frozen drinks or smoothies.
Grand Boulevard is a major, seven to five-lane wide, north-south thoroughfare that runs through the center of St. Louis, Missouri. It runs north through Carondelet Park in the south portion of the city to the Mississippi River north of the McKinley Bridge, about midway between Forest Park and the Mississippi River. Neighborhoods that it runs through include Dutchtown, Tower Grove East, Tower Grove South, Compton Heights, Tiffany, Midtown, Jef-Vander-Lou, Fairground, and College Hill.
Jamestown Mall was an enclosed shopping mall in Florissant, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Opened in 1973, the mall formerly included Dillard's, JCPenney, Macy's, and Sears as its anchor stores. The mall had become increasingly vacant since the beginning of the 2000s. It closed in July 2014 and was demolished from 2023-2024. The site has been slated for redevelopment as an open-air center.
The cuisine of St. Louis is largely influenced by the city’s German, Irish, Italian, Mexican, Chinese, and Vietnamese immigrant population and African Americans who migrated from the Southern United States.
Kline's Dairy Bar is a small ice cream shop with four locations in Virginia, United States. It was established in 1943 in downtown Harrisonburg in the Klines' family home. After the death of owner John Kline, it was bought out and expanded to three other locations. It uses an old fashioned way of production called continuous freeze instead of the newer and more popular soft serve method. This means that there is less air added into the ice cream as it freezes, making for a denser product more like old-fashioned frozen custard. Since this means of production takes more time, the shops only make three flavors a week. They update their customers on the flavors using their website and their Twitter account.
Sweet Alchemy Ice Creamery, or simply Sweet Alchemy, is an ice creamery based in Seattle, Washington. The business has shops in the University District and Ballard neighborhoods and on Capitol Hill. Owner Lois Ko opened the first location near the University of Washington in 2016. The Ballard location opened in 2019 and shares a space with Mighty-O Donuts, and the Capitol Hill shop opened in Chophouse Row in 2020. Sweet Alchemy offers a variety of ice cream and other desserts, and makes cakes, cones, cookies, and toppings in-house. The business pasteurizes its dairy from local farms daily. It has garnered a positive reception and is considered among Seattle's best ice cream shops.
Nielsen's Frozen Custard is an American chain of dessert restaurants mainly serving frozen custard. Founded in 1981, it has eleven locations in Utah and Nevada. It was the first frozen custard business west of the Mississippi and one of the only sellers of the dessert in the country at the time.
