I still have one of the original milk shake machines and two tin milk shake cups that they used to mix up the shakes. The store was eventually purchased and run by my grandfather's sister and her husband, Laz and Marie Paul for many more years. Eventually during that decade, they sold all of the stores except the Redondo Beach store which my grandfather, John Poe, continued to run until his death in August 1962. As part of the settlement when Compton Dairy Products was sold to investors in 1951, my grandfather and father were given stores in Arcadia, Santa Monica, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach. Totally worth the extra nickle (especially since I wasn't the one paying for it.)Īccording to my father, Myron Poe, who along with his brother, Bob Poe, and father, John Poe owned Compton Dairy Products that made all of the "soft serve" mix for all of the stores from their inception through the '50s, George Foster got a west coast franchise from Dairy Queen with the right to call these stores whatever he wanted thus "Foster's Old Fashioned Freeze". I still remember how good that last bit of chocolate pooled at the bottom of the cup tasted. I think the small cups of ice cream were only a nickle, and for another five cents they'd pour some chocolate syrup over it and call it a sundae. You'd eat the ice cream from the cup with a small wooden spoon- more like a little flat paddle, really- because plastic spoons,if they existed yet, were probably too expensive. My parents liked getting ice cream there because you could have it served in a cup, instead of a cone which I was more apt to spill and which would get drippy and messy if I didn't eat the ice cream fast enough. I remember frequently going to a Foster's Freeze on San Gabriel Boulevard in San Gabriel, when I was no more than four or five years old. The first store of that name opened in 1940. Lodi fosters freeze - 315 North Ham Lane Los Angeles fosters freeze - 4967 Eagle Rock. Wasn't the Torrance Fosters Freeze used in the second Charlie's Angels movie?įoster might have introduced soft-serve ice cream to Los Angeles, but the first soft-serve machine was developed in 1938 by J.F. View the fosters freeze menu, read fosters freeze reviews. This picture (undated, by Jim Melashem, in the Los Angeles Public Library collection) shows the Glendale store, across the street from the Mobil station. The Save Historic Old Torrance Association (from whom I borrowed the top picture) claims that this Fosters is the 3rd oldest in Los Angeles County, behind nearby Hawthorne's and Glendale's. If store #23 opened only a year later, either soft-serve cones were addictive or business start-ups cost a lot less in those days. in Inglewood, introducing the world to soft-serve cones. According to the company website, George Foster opened the first Foster's Freeze opened in 1946, on La Brea Ave. The place actually opened in 1947, as store #23 of the Foster's Freeze chain. Especially since, as the Breeze revealed, a demolition permit was issued only a month ago at the property owners' request, but was quickly rescinded. Where does that leave South Bay residents who crave an occasional orange freeze? Well, the new proprietor says nothing will change, and that's good. San Diego and Los Angeles are next.The Daily Breeze ran a story about the Foster's Freeze in old Torrance-the Baldwin family that bought the place in the mid 70s is retiring. No Restrooms (Funny, No. 'ATM Inside (not sure how much they charge per transaction). Harris Cooper, president and chief executive at International Dairy Queen, says the chain has reached agreements to add stores in the Sacramento and Fresno areas. See 28 photos and 8 tips from 309 visitors to Fosters Freeze. 31, 1986, Fosters International had a loss of $644,788 and a working capital deficit of $334,762.įosters Freeze’s biggest challenge, however, may be Dairy Queen’s plans to add 200 outlets to its current 51 in California over the next five years. Fosters International went public with a small stock offering last month to raise $4 million to retire debt and build new stores.įor the 10 months ended Oct. Hiatt and his five investment partners, one of whom was a former longtime Fosters Freeze franchisee, bought the chain after building two of the new, bigger outlets. “We are projecting 30 new stores (a year) for the next five years,” he said in a telephone interview from the chain’s headquarters in Arroyo Grande, Calif. The chain has opened 13 new stores in last 18 months, and five are under construction. Given its strong brand appeal, Fosters President and Chief Executive Hiatt is planning to add new franchises.
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