Who Are We?

A smile says it all...

In 1995, I was on a business trip in St. Louis. It was around lunchtime and the group we were meeting with informed us that they couldn’t meet with us for another two hours. With two hours to kill, we asked the receptionist where we should eat lunch. Without hesitation, she recommended Ted Drews Frozen Custard. She told us that Ted Drews was the third largest tourist attraction in St. Louis.Only the Arch and Busch Brewery topped it. I could hardly believe that an ice cream shop could be so popular. But upon hearing about the history and how unique frozen custard tasted, our mouths were watering! We proceeded to Ted Drews and when we entered the parking lot, we immediately noticed that the service windows had lines of people waiting to order. There must have been seventy people on the lot. It was strange to see a Baskin Robbins just across the street with one person sitting in the lobby. We looked at each other and said, “This place must be good!” After waiting in line, we ordered a vanilla frozen custard in a dish. After my first bite, I was hooked on frozen custard. The smooth, rich taste just left me smacking my lips together and wanting more. 

After some research, I soon discovered that frozen custard is very popular in the Missouri and Wisconsin area, and had been around since the 1920’s. I thought to myself, the taste buds in Wisconsin couldn’t be any different than in Ohio.

After much research and convincing the banks, we opened JD’s Old Fashioned Frozen Custard in 1998. We set it up to look just like the custard stands in the old days. To my pleasure, we have had comments from customers who grew up with frozen custard in different areas of the country and hadn’t had it for years. They were excited we opened because it was like reliving their childhood. The customers who had never tried frozen custard were equally excited because it tasted like nothing they had ever had before and they loved it. I guess the history of JD’s Old Fashioned Frozen Custard is all in the taste!