The Demise of Tastee Freez - Davenport, IA

Our household was in turmoil last evening after watching a gut-wrenching story on the 10 p.m. news - the Tastee Freez on Rockingham Road on the southwest side of Davenport was closing (see map). No reason was given for the demise of the little shop that was first opened in 1954 and served soft-serve ice cream, burgers, hot dogs and sandwiches, as well as milkshakes and malts. It was a wonderful summertime treat for us to take the 20 minute drive over to the other side of town and get an ice cream cone on a warm evening. (Photo courtesy Quad City Times)

The Tastee Freez on the west side of Davenport was a little slice of nostalgia from a time when people would routinely go out for ice cream after dinner. The building hadn't changed since the 50's and it was like going back through a little time warp when you walked up to the one of the two outside windows to place your order. Service was generally fast and efficient and you'd have your ice cream cone within moments after ordering.

In a city where Whitey's Ice Cream rules, the Davenport Tastee Freez had some of the best vanilla soft-serve ice cream I've ever had. For soft-serve ice cream, I liked it better than Dairy Queen and much better than the vastly over-rated Country Style ice cream that has a number of fans in the Quad City area. Cindy liked the chocolate/vanilla swirl, but when they would have their special Walnut flavor ice cream, she would go wild over that.

The highlight, however, was the people watching as you enjoyed your ice cream cone on one of the picnic tables around the building. People from all walks of life went to the west end Tastee Freez, some dressed in some interesting summertime clothes.

The current owner, Tara Kirschenmann from Moline, had owned the Tastee Freez since 1993. She was only the third owner of the franchise in its nearly 58 year history. No word as to why Kirschenmann shut down the Tastee Freez, nor if she was planning on selling the building and its contents. But the signage was taken off the building and the inside appeared to be bare from the picture shown above.

The Davenport Tastee Freez was the last of what was once dozens of Tastee Freez locations across the state of Iowa. There was a pretty good Tastee Freez in Newton, IA where I grew up. It was run by Paul Rose and not only had pretty good ice cream, but they had some of the best hot dogs I've ever had. Many a lunch was spent at the Tastee Freez in Newton until I moved to the Quad Cities over 20 years ago. (Westside Davenport Tastee Freez picture courtesy of Captain Ernie's Showboat.com)

Tastee Freez, as a company, began in 1950 in Newport Beach, CA. The original owners, Harry Axene and Leo Moranz, invented a pump-style soft-serve ice cream machine and the concept was an immediate hit. They began to rent out the machines and franchise the Tastee Freez name. The one on Rockingham Road was one of the first ones in the state of Iowa. As a little kid, I remember getting milkshakes from the Tastee Freez in Newton in cups that had the little Tastee Freez mascots on them - Tee and Eff (below left). Tee, I believe, was supposed to be male, Eff, was female. Or maybe it was vice-versa. It was hard to distinguish the difference between the two other than the "Tee" and "Eff" on their front.

Since 2003, Tastee Freez has been owned by the Garlardi Group, the owners of the Weinerschnitzel chain of fast food restaurants, found primarily west of the Rocky Mountains. In fact, you can find Tastee Freez soft-serve ice cream in over 350 Weinerschnitzel locations across the nation. But the bulk of Tastee Freez locations have closed over the past decade. Today, there are only 42 Tastee Freez stand-alone locations in 17 states including a dozen in Illinois, most of which are in the greater Chicago area.

So it's a sad morning around our house knowing that after a great meal of Cajun barbecued chicken that we won't be able to take the crosstown drive to help cool us off with a great Tastee Freez ice cream cone. Another part of life that we took for granted is now gone.

Comments

[Al]

Sure am going to miss Tastee Freeze. Been going there all my life.

[no name]

I heard over the weekend that she was behind on her taxes. They had to sell everything off to help satisfy the debt. Don't know if that's true or not, but it would make sense.

[no name]

My wife and I used to say the same thing about the people who went to the Tastee Freez, some reminded me of the People of Walmart web site. Good people watching indeed!

[J RAY]

You'd think Country Style would be as good as Whitey's as they were brothers that started both. I don't like Country Style either. And I've lived here all my life.

[Steph's Mom]

My grandmother lived over on Fairmount Street when I was a little girl and we used to go to Tastee Freeze for ice cream all the time. It was a slice of heaven!