Ted Drews Jr., the owner of two venerable St. Louis frozen custard stands that won national acclaim for shakes served upside down, and which were locally embraced as city institutions on the order of the Cardinals or Gateway Arch, has died. on August 26 in St. Louis. He was 96 years old.
His death was confirmed at the hospital by his grandson Josh Dillon.
Known for his easy charm and folksy manner, Mr. Druce took over the family business after his father’s death in 1968. St. Louis native Ted Druis Sr. opened his first frozen custard stand in St. Petersburg, Fla. While working for Carnival in 1929; He returned to St. Louis and opened his first outlet there the following year.
Putting in an 80-hour work week for supervision The company’s stand On the city’s south side — one on South Grand Boulevard, the other on a stretch of Chippewa Street that was once part of Route 66 — the younger Mr. Druze navigated the company through decades of customer tastes and the onslaught of chain ice competition. cream and fast-food franchises.
Despite the challenges, the small company made a big business. He sold about 150,000 gallons of custard each year for decades. Locals who thronged the stand during the sweltering Midwestern summers learned never to confuse a Ted Drewes product with regular ice cream.
“We’re not soft ice cream,” Mr. Drews said in a 1981 interview with The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “We are soft, and we are ice cream. But what you are really talking about is iced milk. We are richer. Frozen custard has more eggs and butterfat, and in our case a little honey.”
Word of Ted Drew’s custard spread across the country. In a 2004 article in The New York Times, RW Apple Jr. It is called “a A paragon among iced desserts“And observed that its formula, which contains at least 10 percent butterfat and at least 1.4 percent eggs, makes it as smooth as a newborn’s cheeks.”
During the scorching summer months, patrons formed lines that wrapped around Ted Drewes cones, sundaes and cups, as well as walk-up stands known as famous shakes. Concretewhich is served upside down to show off its gravity-defying properties. Concrete accounts for about 70 percent of the stands’ business, Mr. Dillon said, and has attracted prominent devotees over the years.
Acclaimed chef Danny Meyer, a native of St. Louis, is among them own ref on the famous frozen custard at its Shake Shack chain. Another celebrity chef, Bobby Flay, Appreciate the glory of concrete In a segment on the Food Network show “The Best Thing I Ever Ate.”
The mayor of the city, Tishaura O. Jones, in a statement after Mr. Druce’s death, said, “Few people have played a role in making St. Louis what Ted Druce Jr. is.
Theodore Raymond Drews Jr., one of three children, was born on February 17, 1928, in St. Louis. His mother, Mildred (Shafer) Drews, worked as a carhop at a custard stand in the early days and remained active in the business.
His father was a prominent local tennis champion who won 15 Municipal Tennis Association singles titles between 1916 and 1935. “The reason Dad went into the ice cream business was so he could play tennis year-round,” Mr. Druis told The Post-Dispatch. “That is the difference between my father and me. I allowed myself to be caught up by business. He never did. “
After graduating from Normandy High School in 1946, Mr. Drewis, a standout in tennis, riflery, speed roller skating and table tennis, attended Washington University in St. Louis. He majored in economics, but grades were not his primary concern.
“I graduated from Washington U. with a fun degree,” he joked 2015 Oral History for the State Historical Society of Missouri. “My idea going into school was to play in every intramural sport there was.”
He met his future wife Dorothy Wehmeyer in college. They married in 1950.
She is survived by her daughters, Christy Dillon and Cynthia Verseman; six grandchildren; two step-grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.
After graduation, Mr. Drews went to work full time for the family business as he faced significant challenges. He said in an oral history, “In the 1950s, Dairy Queen really put a dent in our business, and there was a proliferation of eating places, so we were no longer just a drive-in in town, so to speak. “
Dairy Queen officials would later credit Mr. Drews with this motivation For the chain’s explosively popular Blizzard, an extra-thick soft-serve ice cream shake was introduced in the 1980s and, like Concrete, was known for its array of sugary toppings, including cut-up heath bars, M&Ms and Oreos.
“My father was really discouraged, and he was thinking of retiring,” he said, “at which point I would have to go out and find other work. I started working there at 14 and it was really in my blood.
In response, Mr. Drews started a seasonal Christmas tree business in the parking lot of a custard stand that soon spread to parking lots around town. In 1959, he introduced the gooey treat that would become to St. Louis what egg cream is to New York.
Sampled the same product at Mr. Drewes ParkmoorA popular st. Louis Drive-In, and one of his customers kept asking for a thicker shake, prompting Mr. Drews to serve it upside-down and came up with his signature concrete.
“We charged a nickel more for concrete,” he recalled in an oral history. “And after we had them for about five or six years, one day I talked to my sister Margie. I said, ‘Margie, what if we charge the same for concrete as we do for regular malt?’ She said, ‘You know what will happen.’
“Well, what happened,” he said, “we got a lot of business, because it became our signature.”
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