A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from February 28, 2008
Concrete or Blizzard (frozen dessert)

Entry in progress. Penniless lexicogapher taking a break, attending to pregnant wife—B.P.
 
   
 
Wikipedia: Ted Drewes
Ted Drewes is a frozen custard shop well-known in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. The original was established in 1930 on Natural Bridge Road, with a second location following the next year on South Grand. A decade later, a third location opened on historic Route 66 (on the segment also known as Chippewa). The Natural Bridge location closed in 1958. Unlike some later frozen custard stands, Ted Drewes only makes their custard in one flavor (vanilla) and adds other flavorings and toppings when an order is placed.
 
The shop may be best known for a specialty called a “concrete”, which is custard blended with any of dozens of ingredients, and served in a large yellow cup with a spoon and straw. Concretes are blended so thick that they and their spoon do not fall out when their cup is turned upside-down; servers often demonstrate this before handing customers their order. The Concrete is the inspiration for Dairy Queen’s later Blizzard shake (which is made with soft serve in comparison to the thicker frozen custard of Ted Drewes). Some ingredients, such as apple and pumpkin pie, appear for a short period every year in seasonal varieties. 
 
Dairy Queen
The Original! Blizzard Flavor Treats
Creamy smooth DQ soft serve blended with your favorite candy, cookies, or fruit add up to one irresistible taste sensation. 
 
Culver’s Frozen Custard and Butterburgers
Concrete Shakes and Malts: Super thick shakes and malts made to eat with a spoon.
 
Shake Shack (New York, NY)
CONCRETES
Dense frozen custard blended at high speed with homemade mix-ins.
The Concrete Jungle
hot fudge, bananas and peanut butter $6.25
Hopscotch
hot caramel sauce, chocolate toffee and valrhona chocolate chunks $6.25
Shack Attack
chocolate custard, hot fudge, chocolate truffle cookie dough and valrhona chocolate chunks, topped with chocolate sprinkles $6.75
Concreation foundation $4.25
design your own!
• each homemade topping or mix-in $.75
 
Scooter’s Frozen Custard (Chicago, IL)
And, What the heck is a Concrete?
“CONCRETE”
A “Load” of Frozen Custard
Add your choice of “Mix-In”
Blend for a Custard Treat so thick and creamy it can be served upside-down!             
“MIX-IN”
Toppings and Flavoring including, but not limited to….
M&M’s, Butterfingers, Reese’s, Cookies and Cream
Chocolate, Strawberry, Caramel, Bananas  
You get the idea…..
You pick the toppings. Scooter’s blends them with Custard for the super thick and super creamy treat called a CONCRETE!
   
19 June 1938, Sunday Times-Signal (Zanesville, OH), “Minding My Own Business” by Earl W. Brannon, pg. ?, col. 1:
Young America Uses
_"Screwball Talk”
Out in Ames, I-o-way, there is a very fine state supported agricultural college.  Farmers send their offspring to this institution from far and wide in hopes they will pick up a little of the latest inside dope about the scientific farming and housekeeping together with a bit of cultural polish which along with the radio and a big high powered automobile will make farm life more profitable and attractive.
(...)
These farmers’ daughters and sons have contributed something however to the quaint American tongue in connection with the campus hamburger “joints.”  “One Elmer” is their term for a hamburger sandwich.  If it comes up “dry-eyed” it is in its natural state of preservation but if it comes “bawling” the piece de resistance is embelished with a generous slice of onion.
 
“Run the concrete” and the result is a malted milk.
 
1 September 1986, New York (NY) Times, “Dairy Queen’s Blizzard Is Hot” by Stephen Phillips, pg. 34: 
Dairy Queen officials give credit for developing the Blizzard to Samuel J. Temperato, who is a franchise holder of 67 Dairy Queens in the St. Louis area. Mr. Temperato agrees that he introduced Blizzards to senior officials at Dairy Queen. But he says credit for the invention should go to Ted Drewes Jr., also of St. Louis, “who has survived the onslaught of Dairy Queens by just selling frozen custard.”  Frozen custard has a higher butterfat content than Dairy Queen’s ice cream, and also contains egg yolk.
 
The biggest seller in the two Ted Drewes Frozen Custard stores, in fact, is a product that he calls a Concrete, frozen custard blended without milk.
   
Roadfood (2002)
by Jane and Michael Stern
Pg. 319 (Ted Drewes, St. Louis, MO): The best-known dish in the house is called a concrete, which is a milk shake so thick that the server hands it out the order window upside down, demonstrating that not a drop will drip.
 
6 July 1994, The Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), “Hometown ice creams a homemade delight” by Nancy Gordon, pg. D1:
At the Double Nickel, owners Don and Nancy Geiselman of Bloomington, formerly of El Paso, say their frozen custard is a “true ‘50s nostalgia product.”
 
In the food and ice cream business for 25 years, the Geiselmans opened the 1950s-theme drive-in at the corner of Morrissey Drive and Veterans Parkway on Bloomington’s south side six years ago.
 
Besides serving Double Nickel burgers, lunches and dinners, the restaurant makes its version of 1950s-style homemade ice cream fresh every day. Vanilla flavor is always available. The “special” flavors, which change every two or three days, include such embellishments as English Toffee, Chocolate Peanut Butter Chocolate (Elvis’ favorite), Caramel Cashew, Raspberry, Cherry Amaretto,
Mocha Chip, Bailey’s Irish Cream Coffee and dozens of others.
 
The frozen custard is made in 3- or 4-gallon batches several times a day, Geiselman said. A “custard forecast” is announced each month so patrons can be sure to be on hand to enjoy their favorite flavors. A newsletter, the Double Nickel Scoop, reminds patrons to call The Pantagraph’s CITYLINE, 829-9000, ext. 5500, to discover the day’s feature flavor.
 
The custard also is used in the restaurant’s unique “Concrete Shakes,” a thick custard milk shake with added delights such as cookies and cream, peanut butter, hot caramel and lots of other goodies.
 
Geiselman said the custard, a 10 percent butterfat product developed in the Coney Island area in 1919, is a unique product - a smooth, rich, nearly-like-homemade ice cream, for which sales have seen a steady growth every year.
     
BNET
Blizzard approximates St. Louis original concrete
Gazette, The (Colorado Springs),  Apr 15, 2005 by BILL REED THE GAZETTE
Sunday’s snowstorm prompted a lot of folks to stay inside and bake, but I felt inspired to head out and celebrate the 20th anniversary of the DQ Blizzard.
(...)
There are ice cream stands every few blocks in St. Louis, but one place is the Shangri-La of all lovers of the cream. Ted Drewes, founded in 1930.
On summer evenings, lines snaked out from the windows of the Ted Drewes frozen custard shack. People lounged on car hoods in the parking lot as Jack Buck’s voice car- ried the details of that night’s Cardinal game.
 
The treat everybody came to Ted Drewes for was the “concrete,” a concoction of frozen custard and mixed-in fruit or candy bars so thick the servers confidently turned it upside down when they handed it to you.
 
Lo and behold, in 1984 the operator of a Dairy Queen in St. Louis came up with a novel item he called a “concrete.” Where ever did he dream up with such a thing?
 
After extensive testing deep in the DQ laboratories, the chain rolled out the newly christened “Blizzard,” swirling goodies into their soft serve. (Ever notice that DQ isn’t allowed to call the product “ice cream?” Makes you wonder.)
 
So, I celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Blizzard, which is a reasonable facsimile of the concretes I love.
   
(Trademark)
Word Mark BLIZZARD
Goods and Services IC 007. US 023. G & S: FLAVOR BLENDER MACHINE FOR FROZEN TREATS. FIRST USE: 19841029. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19841029
Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
Serial Number 73645656
Filing Date February 20, 1987
Current Filing Basis 1A
Original Filing Basis 1A
Published for Opposition July 7, 1987
Registration Number 1458987
Registration Date September 29, 1987
Owner (REGISTRANT) AMERICAN DAIRY QUEEN CORPORATION CORPORATION DELAWARE 7505 Metro Boulevard Edina MINNESOTA 55439
Attorney of Record Laura J. Hein
Prior Registrations 0559844;0895139
Type of Mark TRADEMARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Affidavit Text SECT 15. SECT 8 (6-YR). SECTION 8(10-YR) 20071012.
Renewal 1ST RENEWAL 20071012
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

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