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Nedick's was an American chain of fast-food
restaurants A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearance ...
that originated in
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in 1913."Title to Nedick's Will Pass Today: Orange-Drink Chain That Took In $10,000,000 in 7 Good Years to Be Continued", ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', April 13, 1934, p. 16
The name of the chain was formed from the last names of Robert T. Neely and Orville A. Dickinson,"The Talk of the Town: The Man Behind Nedicks"
''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issue ...
'', February 25, 1928, p. 11
who founded the chain with the original stand in a hotel storefront of the Bartholdi Hotel at 23rd Street and Broadway in Manhattan. During the 1950s the chain expanded to the
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;
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; Boston, Massachusetts,
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;
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; and
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areas.Jackson, Kenneth T., editor. ''The Encyclopedia of New York City'' (Yale University Press: New Haven & London, 1995): "Nedick's" (entry), by Robert Sanger Steel, p. 803 Originally known for making and selling a signature orange drink, Nedick's expanded its menu through the years. Coffee, doughnuts and hot dogs, with a unique mustard relish in a toasted bun, were added to the Nedick's menu. The chain became known for the orange with white decor of its locations as well as the slogans "Good food is never expensive at Nedick's" and "Always a pleasure". Following intense competition in the 1970s from national chains including
McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold ...
and
Dunkin' Donuts Dunkin' Donuts LLC, also known as Dunkin' and by the initials DD, is an American multinational coffee and doughnut company, as well as a quick service restaurant. It was founded by William Rosenberg, Bill Rosenberg (1916–2002) in Quincy, Mas ...
, and criticism in 1981 for the quality of its concession at the
Central Park Zoo The Central Park Zoo is a zoo located at the southeast corner of Central Park in New York City. It is part of an integrated system of four zoos and one aquarium managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). In conjunction with the Centra ...
, Nedick's ceased operations. An attempt was made in 2003 to revive the chain by new owners who had purchased the rights to use the Nedick's name. Three locations were opened in New York City during 2003 but were closed after operating for a number of years. An article in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' once referred to the Nedick's chain as "The
Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 ...
of New York".


History

The Nedick's chain was founded by Robert T. Neely, a real estate investor, and Orville A. Dickinson, who operated a store in the Bartholdi Hotel located at 23rd Street and
Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
, in 1913. The original Nedick's stand opened in a hotel storefront at the Bartholdi Hotel. Nedick's business plan was modeled after an Atlantic City juice stand named Clements. Growing from one location they expanded to 13 locations by 1917. In 1924 it was reported that the Nedick's Corporation had signed a 21-year lease, at an aggregate cost of $1,000,000, for three locations on
Coney Island Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to th ...
with one located on the
Coney Island Boardwalk The Riegelmann Boardwalk (also known as the Coney Island Boardwalk) is a boardwalk along the southern shore of the Coney Island peninsula in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, facing the Atlantic Ocean. Opened in 1923, the boardwalk runs bet ...
. By 1927 Nedick's had expanded to 135 locations and reported serving 25,000,000 customers annually with a gross profit of $2,500,000. Two-thirds of Nedick's sales were from their orange drink and in 1928 plans were made to operate a bottling plant for this beverage. In later years Nedick's orange drink was advertised for sale at a large number of retail outlets. Hot lunches were added to the Nedick's menu beginning in 1930. The Great Depression took a toll on the Nedick's chain and by 1934 only 40 locations remained. Robert Neely, the sole remaining owner, lost control of the company when a group of investors purchased the assets of Nedick's, at auction, for $48,000 on April 11, 1934. The new owners of Nedick's worked aggressively to rebuild the brand and began using radio advertising that touted the health benefits of
vitamin B1 Thiamine, also known as thiamin and vitamin B1, is a vitamin, an essential micronutrient, that cannot be made in the body. It is found in food and commercially synthesized to be a dietary supplement or medication. Phosphorylated forms of thi ...
that was being added to the traditional Nedick's orange drink. Some of the new
radio commercials In the United States, commercial radio stations make most of their revenue by selling airtime to be used for running radio advertisements. These advertisements are the result of a business or a service providing a valuable consideration, usually ...
for the Nedick's chain featuring a character called "Little Nick". A
loss leader A loss leader (also leader) is a pricing strategy where a product is sold at a price below its market cost to stimulate other sales of more profitable goods or services. With this sales promotion/marketing strategy, a "leader" is any popular arti ...
breakfast was offered in order to bring in customers and it was hoped that this would increase business throughout the day. Within a five-year period, from 1941 to 1946, sales numbers at Nedick's tripled. In 1948 it was advertised that a
carbonated Carbonation is the chemical reaction of carbon dioxide to give carbonates, bicarbonates, and carbonic acid. In chemistry, the term is sometimes used in place of carboxylation, which refers to the formation of carboxylic acids. In inorganic ...
version of the Nedick's orange drink was to be sold only through independent retailers. In 1953, Nedick's, with 75 locations, began running a contest in which customers could enter to win daily prizes ranging from $1–$25 at each location and a monthly drawing where one Nedick's customer would win a mink coat. During this time Nedick's also offered advertising
token coin In numismatics, token coins or trade tokens are coin-like objects used instead of coins. The field of token coins is part of exonumia and token coins are token money. Their denomination is shown or implied by size, color or shape. They are o ...
s, included in packages of cigarettes that were sold at Nedick's, that could be used for purchasing products at their locations before the
expiration date An expiration date or expiry date is a previously determined date after which something should no longer be used, either by operation of law or by exceeding the anticipated shelf life for perishable goods. Expiration dates are applied to selecte ...
stamped on the token. After being acquired in May 1965 by the ABC Consolidated Corporation, plans were announced to expand and modernize the then 83 store chain with a goal of making Nedick's a national chain. Nedick's was a sponsor of the
New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associa ...
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
team, which gave rise to the
catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recogni ...
of the Knicks' long-time radio announcer,
Marty Glickman Martin Irving Glickman (August 14, 1917 – January 3, 2001) was an American radio announcer who was famous for his broadcasts of the New York Knicks basketball games and the football games of the New York Giants and the New York Jets. Glickman ...
: "Good like Nedick's", intoned after the team scored a basket. Another common phrase was "Meet me outside Nedick's", as the well-known and highly visible locations were very familiar for people to rendezvous. Nedick's had a location on 8th Avenue in
Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsyl ...
, the Knicks' arena until 1968. Following intense competition in the 1970s from such national chains as
McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold ...
and
Dunkin' Donuts Dunkin' Donuts LLC, also known as Dunkin' and by the initials DD, is an American multinational coffee and doughnut company, as well as a quick service restaurant. It was founded by William Rosenberg, Bill Rosenberg (1916–2002) in Quincy, Mas ...
, and criticism in 1981 for the quality of its concession at the
Central Park Zoo The Central Park Zoo is a zoo located at the southeast corner of Central Park in New York City. It is part of an integrated system of four zoos and one aquarium managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). In conjunction with the Centra ...
, Nedick's ceased operations during the 1980s.


Revival of brand name

In 2001, the Riese Organization, which operated a number of Dunkin' Donuts and
Pizza Hut Pizza Hut is an American multinational restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas by Dan and Frank Carney. They serve their signature pan pizza and other dishes including pasta, breadsticks and dessert at d ...
locations, sought to revive the Nedick's brand and purchased the rights for the Nedick's name. Three Nedick's locations were opened in New York City in 2003 at
Penn Station Pennsylvania Station is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad to several of its grand passenger terminals. Pennsylvania Station or Penn Station may also refer to Current train stations * Baltimore Penn Station * Pennsylvania Station (Cinc ...
, 1286
Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
and 416 8th Avenue. These new locations featured an expanded menu from the original Nedick's stores and it was reported that research was done on Nedick's history to make the dining experience as close to the original, but it was admitted that most of the information obtained was
anecdotal Anecdotal evidence is evidence based only on personal observation, collected in a casual or non-systematic manner. The term is sometimes used in a legal context to describe certain kinds of testimony which are uncorroborated by objective, independ ...
. All locations have since closed and Nedick's is no longer featured on Riese Restaurants webpage.


References

{{reflist, 2 Hot dog restaurants in the United States History of New York City Defunct restaurants in New York City Defunct restaurant chains in the United States 1913 establishments in New York (state) Restaurants established in 1913 2003 disestablishments in the United States