Greater's Ice Cream

by Robin Davis Heigel

  AN IRRESISTIBLE HISTORY

  ROBIN DAVIS HEIGEL

  Published by The History Press

  Charleston, SC 29403

  www.historypress.net

  Copyright © 2010 by Robin Davis Heigel

  All rights reserved

  First published 2010

  e-book edition 2011

  ISBN 978.1.61423.071.7

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Heigel, Robin Davis.

  Graeter’s Ice Cream : an irresistible history / Robin Davis Heigel.

  p. cm.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  print edition: ISBN 978-1-59629-971-9

  1. Graeter’s (Firm)--History. 2. Ice cream industry--United States--History. 3.

  Ice cream parlors--Ohio--Cincinnati--History I. Title.

  HD9281.U54G734 2010

  338.7’63740973--dc22

  2010019124

  Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  CONTENTS

  Foreword, by Richard Graeter II

  Acknowledgements

  Introduction

  The Early Years

  A Changing Country, an Uneasy Alliance

  Third Generation

  Tough Transition

  Looking to the Future

  Accolades

  Timeline

  Store Locations

  Bibliography

  Index

  About the Author

  FOREWORD

  The ancient Greek tragedians taught that only through suffering can one gain wisdom. Perhaps this is why most family businesses do not make it to the fourth generation. The succeeding generations, thanks to the hard work of the prior ones, do not have to work so hard to enjoy the good life, and so they lose the entrepreneurial zeal and dedication that gives all great family businesses an edge over their big-business competition. In such cases, the latter generations eventually run down their legacy or sell out—usually both. Thankfully, my family has steadfastly been able to avoid this fate. So maybe a little suffering is not such a bad thing! I guess that makes yet one more thing I owe to my father. Thanks, Dad!

  As every family business consultant and advice book will tell you, the most dangerous and painful road that all family businesses must negotiate is transitioning from one generation to the next. My family has certainly had its share of pain during its transitions over the years. An untimely death, an irreconcilable feud between brothers, a debilitating accident, bickering cousins and a near-death experience—all these and more marked the transitions of one generation to another for the Graeter family.

  And yet through it all, we have survived and come out stronger, I think, thanks to the one shared value that we all hold dear above all other things: the quality of our product, Graeter’s Ice Cream. Over the years, the family has probably disagreed on everything under the sun. But we have never disagreed on our dedication to quality. And that has been the glue that has kept us together for over 140 years.

  When asked if I regret the struggle with the difficult transition to our generation, I reply that I do not. Had it been easy, then perhaps my cousins and I would not have the strong partnership that we now enjoy. It has been said that such bonds form among those who share a traumatic experience. We certainly had our share of trauma trying to figure out how to move to the fourth generation, but I can honestly say that the relationship among us, and with our aunt and fathers, has never been stronger. The ancients were right: wisdom comes through suffering. May heaven help the upcoming fifth generation!

  What follows is a story about our family, our business and, most importantly, our ice cream. We have seen many changes over the years and have made many changes, but we have never sacrificed on our core promise: to simply make the best ice cream that you’ll ever taste. Readers of bestselling business author (and my personal favorite) Jim Collins will readily understand this precept.

  At one time, everyone made ice cream the way we do. Now, we are the only ones left. Why? Because we always understood that we must never change the product, a fact that liberated us to make other changes necessary to survive through fourteen decades.

  The other reason we’re the only ones still making ice cream the old-fashioned way? Because the Graeter family is just that darn stubborn.

  Richard A. Graeter II

  President and CEO of Graeter’s Inc.and

  Graeter’s Manufacturing Company

  Fourth generation of Graeter family

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I created this book primarily from interviews with the Graeter family. Dick, Lou and Kathy gave me their recollections of their father, grandfather and the earliest years of the business, while Richard and Chip detailed what it was like to grow up as a Graeter and the difficult transition to becoming the owners of the company. I supplemented the family information with historical information from books, newspapers and magazine articles and various online sources, including timeline.org, as noted in the bibliography.

  My thanks go out to the Graeter family for being so open with me about their family history and for helping me piece together the different eras. Thanks especially to Richard, who went through the manuscript carefully to make sure the details I had collected from so many different sources were correct.

  I would also like to thank Joe Gartrell and The History Press for the opportunity to write this book.

  To my friends and family, thank you for accompanying me on multiple trips to Graeter’s Ice Cream every time I needed a break from research and writing to get some sweet inspiration. I know it was a sacrifice. I wish my jeans had been as accommodating as all of you.

  And I would like to offer a special thank-you to my family. Ben, thanks for being understanding when I needed to miss so many of your tennis matches to finish the book. Molly and Sarah, thanks for putting up with so many nights of “graband-go” dinners.

  I would also like to give my biggest thanks to my husband, Ken, for his photographic contributions to the book, for careful and kind editing of the words and for his constant encouragement.

  INTRODUCTION

  Historians do not agree on when or where ice cream was created, but the general consensus is that it was invented in China in the form of sweet ice, possibly as early as 3000 BC. Centuries later, Marco Polo discovered it on his world travels, and he then supposedly took the treat back to Italy, where it was made into something closer to what we now call “ice cream.”

  While this can’t be confirmed or denied, it is certain that the ice cream enjoyed in the United States today came from Europe. Thomas Jefferson, who ate ice cream in France, is credited with making it popular in America. The Jefferson Papers Collection at the Library of Congress houses one of the first printed recipes for ice cream, from 1784. It calls simply for cream, sugar and eggs and was made using a machine called the sabottiere or sorbetiere, which looks like a primitive version of today’s hand-cranked ice cream makers.

  From there, ice cream became the darling of anyone who had some version of a maker and access to ice. The rich treat had to be cranked and enjoyed right away, because without refrigerators or freezers, there was no means of storing it frozen for any length of time.

  In the late 1800s in Cincinnati, Ohio, Louis Charles Graeter turned to ice cream to make a living
. He cranked the ice cream in the back room of the bottom floor of his home on McMillan Street and sold it out the front. He used what was known as the “French pot,” a spinning bowl that would throw the sweet mixture against the sides, from where he scraped it as it froze, not much different than the early sabottieire.

  Now, almost 150 years later, an ice cream produced by the fourth generation of the Graeter family—in virtually the same manner—is considered by many to be one of the best ice creams in the country. It has gained national notoriety, being highlighted in O! magazine and featured in other publications such as Gourmet, Vanity Fair and Saveur. Mystery writer James Patterson included Graeter’s Ice Cream in one of his thrillers, Honeymoon, in 2005.

  Ohio senator Gary Cates used Graeter’s Ice Cream to sweeten the pot, so to speak, feeding it to other senators in order to get a bill on workman’s compensation passed in 2005. “I found that people are a lot friendlier when they’re eating Graeter’s Ice Cream,” Cates said in an article in the Columbus Dispatch.

  In Ohio, Graeter’s Ice Cream represents such a part of the fabric of life that it is not uncommon to find obituaries that list the ice cream among the favorite things of the deceased, along with the Cincinnati Reds and the Ohio State Buckeyes.

  Graeter’s Ice Cream is no ordinary ice cream, though the flavors certainly sound familiar and it can be found somewhere as ordinary as a supermarket freezer in certain parts of the country. Graeter’s is more than just a pleasant regional ice cream, like Pierre’s of Cleveland with its dozens of flavors or Velvet Ice Cream of Utica, Ohio, even though Velvet is also family owned and almost as old as Graeter’s. And Graeter’s is different than the new breed of artisan ice creams, such as Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in Columbus, with its far-out flavors. The flavors at Graeter’s have changed little in the last seventy-five years.

  Graeter’s is, by and large, exactly the same as it was when Louis Charles hand stirred it in the original French pots. There’s a lot to be said for a product that has maintained such consistency and such a loyal following for that length of time. And the company is still 100 percent family owned, no small feat considering that less than 3 percent of family businesses survive into the fourth generation.

  The company’s history encompasses a story of love and division, bickering and communing, but always with attention to one of the most irresistible products in America: its ice cream.

  How sweet is that?

  THE EARLY YEARS

  People have called Cincinnati many names: Porkopolis, Queen of the West, Queen City, Blue Chip City and the City of Seven Hills. But the city along the Ohio River that was founded in 1788 got its final name from a famous ancient Roman general named Cincinnatus. Many considered Cincinnatus, who lived roughly from 520 to 430 BC, to be a hero for defeating the Aequians, Sabinians and Volscians—and then resigning from the dictatorship he had rightly won to rule only his own farm.

  Cincinnati resembled pioneer-era cities such as Pittsburgh and Nashville, riverboat towns like St. Louis and New Orleans and immigrant-industrial metropolises similar to Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit.

  Cincinnati consisted of a large area, with the Ohio River forming the southern boundary and the hills to the north enclosing its basin. Initially, people and businesses set up in the basin of the city, near the river, because it could be harnessed for energy and transportation of goods and people. The introduction of steam navigation on the Ohio River and the completion of the Miami and Erie Canal helped the city’s population grow.

  The city limits stopped at Liberty Street, and the area above it was known as the Northern Liberties because it was not subject to the laws of the city. As such, it drew a concentration of bootleggers, saloons and entrepreneurs. In 1848, the city annexed the area as its first “suburb.”

  The city considered itself a jewel of the Midwest, and to prove it, it held industrial expositions every year from 1870 to 1888 to showcase invention, trade and the arts. These gatherings proved that Cincinnati was a center of music, art and industry.

  Cincinnati was one of the first American cities to be home to a zoo. The Zoological Society of Cincinnati was founded in 1873 and officially opened the gates to the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden in 1875. At the time, its animal collection was very small: just a few monkeys, grizzly bears, deer, raccoons and elk but an impressive collection of birds, including a talking crow.

  The city also played home to a professional baseball team: the Red Stockings who eventually went on to become simply, the Reds. In their first season in 1869, they went undefeated.

  The city became an important stop along the Underground Railroad in the pre–Civil War era because it bordered on the slave state of Kentucky. Historical papers often mention Cincinnati as a crucial stopping place for those escaping slavery.

  During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, public markets represented the primary source for buying and selling perishable food in Cincinnati, as they were in other urban centers. Butchers, farmers and produce vendors gathered under one roof to sell their wares to residents who lived within walking distance of the markets. These markets also became places to socialize and for public meetings. At one time, Cincinnati had as many as nine public markets in different areas of the city. But as the trolley and incline systems were constructed, people moved from the basin of the city to the hills. On each hill, neighborhood businesses, including grocery markets, popped up. The only remaining public market in Cincinnati today is the Findlay Market, near the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood.

  In the late 1800s, Cincinnati was governed by a system of wards that lent themselves to corruption. From the 1880s until the 1920s, the Republican machine of Boss Cox primarily ran the city. By 1924, a new politician, Murray Seasongood, had instigated the ballot system to eliminate the corrupt wards.

  The city was also the birthplace of two United States presidents. Benjamin Harrison, the twenty-third president, was elected in 1888 (at which time he resided in Indianapolis, Indiana). William Howard Taft was elected in 1909. The Tafts became a major political family in Ohio, with the president’s son and grandson both becoming U.S. senators and his great-grandson, Bob Taft, being a two-term governor of the state.

  People who came to America from different countries settled together in neighborhoods such as Over-the-Rhine for Germans and the West End for Eastern Europeans, especially Jews. In many neighborhoods, workshops, homes and businesses stood side by side. To accommodate the growing population, developers created “French flats,” which, instead of being just sleeping rooms, were more traditional apartments that included private bathrooms and kitchens.

  But the densely packed population in these areas created poor sanitation conditions that led to a cholera outbreak in 1867. To help ease these conditions, Cincinnati constructed suburban parks, new waterworks and broad avenues out of the city.

  Despite the city’s flaws, which were the same found in most urban areas at the time, to Louis Charles Graeter, Cincinnati was a haven.

  A GRAETER MOVES TO CINCINNATI

  Born in 1852, Louis Charles, son of immigrants from Germany, left his home in Madison, Indiana, as a teenager and moved to the Queen City. His grandchildren say they were told the young Graeter left home because his father, a barber, was “so mean to him,” a quality they considered to be “typical” of their German heritage. Time would prove that the Graeters had a long history of being strong-willed, opinionated and not likely to shy from arguments.

  Louis Charles landed in Cincinnati and began to sell ice cream at a street market at the base of Sycamore Hill. Making ice cream in those days was a painstaking—and expensive—process. Graeter made the treat by stirring it by hand in a metal pail set in a bucket filled with ice and salt, two expensive and hard-to-come-by items. The concoction had to be eaten almost immediately because there was no way to store it. Ice cream was, in those days, still considered a novel delicacy.

  Graeter’s Ice Cream was a newsworthy company in 1883, when the Walnut
Hills News ran a blurb that stated: “Graeter’s Ice Cream business is opening unusually good. He keeps two wagons engaged in delivering and three men employed in making his delicious creams.”

  But about the same time, Louis Charles decided that Cincinnati and the domestic life he had created with his wife, Anna, didn’t suit him. He took $1,000 from his bank accounts and left his wife with the ice cream business and a fair amount of debt.

  The Graeter family of Madison, Indiana. Young Louis Charles is on the far left. Courtesy of Graeter’s Ice Cream.

  Louis Charles set out to find his fortune in Stockton, California, where he married again. A different state and different faces offered only the same results for Louis Charles. Around the turn of the century, he left California and again returned to Cincinnati.

  Louis Charles’s brother, Fred, who had followed him to Cincinnati years earlier, was perhaps more noble than he. Fred had maintained the business and gotten it out of debt while Louis Charles was on the West Coast. When Louis Charles returned, Anna was gone, but the business was intact, so he resumed making ice cream in the French pots.

  Maybe the hope for love knows no limits, or maybe the third time really is a charm, because Louis Charles again tried his hand at marriage. He wed Regina Berger, who was the daughter of prominent Cincinnati businessman Anton Berger. Anton was an upstanding man in the community, president and general manager of the Julius J. Bantlin Company, which manufactured saddlery and hardware. Regina, his third child, was twenty-three years younger than her new husband. It appears that in Regina, Louis Charles had met his match.

  Louis Charles Graeter, founder of Graeter’s Ice Cream, was born in 1852 and moved to Cincinnati as a teenager. Courtesy of Graeter’s Ice Cream.

  The couple set up a home at 967 East McMillan Street in the Walnut Hills district of Cincinnati, a section at the top of the Main Street incline, one of the city’s trolley systems. Louis Charles operated Graeter’s Ice Cream out of their flat, cranking out the ice cream in the back room of the bottom floor and selling it out the front. Louis Charles and Regina lived in the upper floors. This store remained in operation until 1972. The property was sold in 1974.