Fosters Freeze is a chain of

fast-food restaurants A fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast-food cuisine and has minimal table service. The food served in fast-food restaurants is typicall ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Its first location, on

La Brea Avenue La Brea Avenue is a prominent north-south thoroughfare in the City of Los Angeles and in Los Angeles County, California. La Brea is known for having diverse ethnic communities, and many shops and restaurants along its route. History ''La Br ...

Inglewood, California Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 107,762. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. The city is in the South Bay ...

, was opened by George Foster in 1946 and is still operating. The chain's name refers to its

soft-serve Soft serve, also known as soft ice, is a frozen dessert, similar to ice cream but softer and less dense due to air being introduced during freezing. Soft serve has been sold commercially since the late 1930s in the US. In the US, soft serve is ...

ice milk Ice milk, or iced milk, is a frozen dessert with less than 10 percent milk fat and the same sweetener content as ice cream. Ice milk is sometimes priced lower than ice cream. A 1994 change in United States Food and Drug Administration rules allow ...

and

milkshakes A milkshake (sometimes simply called a shake) is a sweet beverage made by blending milk, ice cream, and flavorings or sweeteners such as butterscotch, caramel sauce, chocolate syrup, fruit syrup, or whole fruit into a thick, sweet, cold mixture ...

. Its marketing slogan is "California's Original

Soft Serve Soft serve, also known as soft ice, is a frozen dessert, similar to ice cream but softer and less dense due to air being introduced during freezing. Soft serve has been sold commercially since the late 1930s in the US. In the US, soft serve is ...

." Its

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

is Little Foster, a smiling ice cream cone.

History

George Foster moved to California after World War II to open outlets for

Dairy Queen Dairy Queen (DQ) is an American chain of soft serve ice cream and fast food restaurants owned by International Dairy Queen, Inc. (a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway since 1998) which also owns Orange Julius, and formerly owned Karmelkorn and G ...

, since he owned the development rights in the state. However, state laws protecting the dairy industry prevented the use of “dairy” in restaurant names. So instead, in 1946, Foster opened a restaurant named after himself, ''Foster’s Old Fashion Freeze''. (The apostrophe was later dropped.) In 1951, he sold the chain's 360 locations for $1 million. By 1987, it had been reduced to 189 locations.

El Pollo Loco El Pollo Loco (Spanish for "The Crazy Chicken") is the name of two independent restaurant chains that specialize in Mexican-style grilled chicken. Both were founded by Juan Francisco Ochoa. He established the first El Pollo Loco restaurant in G ...

signed a master franchise contract with Fosters Freeze in 1994, allowing service of Fosters Freeze soft-serve ice cream in El Pollo Loco locations. In 2002, 163 El Pollo Loco locations sold Fosters Freeze products, and their overall sales increased by three to six percent. The contract ended in 2014. The historical significance of Fosters Freeze restaurants attracts patrons and has united community members to preserve them. In 2006, residents of Menlo Park presented their city council a petition with about 400 signatures to prevent the demolition of their local Fosters, although it finally closed in 2015. The Santa Cruz location is listed in the city's historic building survey. In 2015, a restaurant franchise investment group bought Fosters Freeze. It modernized the brand and operations; sales have increased every year since then. As of 2021, the company plans to add locations for the first time since 2006. As of December 2021, there are 66 Fosters Freeze locations, all in California.

In popular culture

The Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and frie ...

song "

Fun, Fun, Fun "Fun, Fun, Fun" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1964 album ''Shut Down Volume 2''. Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, it was released as a single in February, backed with " Why Do Fools Fall in Love". "Fun, Fun, ...

" was inspired by the Fosters Freeze location in

Hawthorne, California Hawthorne is a city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California. It is part of a seventeen-city region commonly called the South Bay. As of the 2020 US census, Hawthorne had a population of 88,0 ...

. * The Fosters Freeze in

Atwater Village, Los Angeles Atwater Village is a neighborhood in the 13th district of Los Angeles, California. Much of Atwater Village lies in the fertile Los Angeles River flood plain. Located in the northeast region of the city, Atwater borders Griffith Park and Silver L ...

appeared in the movie ''

Pulp Fiction ''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhame ...

''.

References

External links

* {{Fast-food chains of the United States 1946 establishments in California Restaurants established in 1946 Fast-food chains of the United States Fast-food poultry restaurants Fast-food franchises Ice cream parlors in the United States Companies based in San Bernardino County, California Inglewood, California Regional restaurant chains in the United States