Celebrity chefs and politicians paid tribute to the man behind the extra-thick shake known as the concrete, an intrinsic part of St. Louis summers.
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Ted Drewes Jr., the proprietor of two venerable St. Louis frozen custard stands that drew national acclaim for shakes so thick they are served upside down, and that were embraced locally as city institutions on the order of the Cardinals or the Gateway Arch, died on Aug. 26 in St. Louis. He was 96.
His death, in a hospital, was confirmed by his grandson Josh Dillon.
Known for his easy charm and folksy manner, Mr. Drewes took over the family business after his father died in 1968. Ted Drewes Sr., a St. Louis native, had opened his first frozen custard stand in St. Petersburg, Fla., in 1929 while working for a carnival; he returned to St. Louis and opened his first outlet there the next year.
Putting in 80-hour work weeks overseeing the company’s stands 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. Drewes navigated the company for decades through evolving consumer tastes and an onslaught of competition from chain ice cream and fast-food franchises.
Despite the challenges, the small company did big business. It has sold roughly 150,000 gallons of custard per year for decades. Locals who crowded the stands during muggy Midwestern summers learned never to confuse the Ted Drewes product with regular ice cream.
“We’re not soft ice cream,” Mr. Drewes said in a 1981 interview with The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “We’re soft, and we’re ice cream. But what you’re really talking about there is ice milk. We’re richer. Frozen custard has more eggs and butterfat, and in our case a little honey.”
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