but do you know the story of how it got its name? I never knew there was an official story. I thought "yes, it is as thick as concrete" ...and left it at that.
The story is not on Ted Drewes' website. It's not even in foodie historian Ron Elz' fascinating and comprehensive article here. And Elz doesn't miss much.
Just so happens that in 1959, 50 years ago this May, a guy named Steve Gamber (who's now 64) began bicycling to Ted Drewes' Chippewa location for a daily Landshire sandwich and a chocolate malt. Each day he'd ask 30 year old Ted Drewes Jr. to make the malt thicker. Ted made the successive malts thicker and thicker but the 14 year old wanted them thicker still. One day, "Just to shut me up," reports Gamber, "Ted turned the malt upside down right in front of me and said 'is this thick enough for you? If it falls out, it's free.'" Gamber paid for his malt.
For its 50th anniversary, sculptor Don Wiegand created a life-cast sculpure of Ted's hand holding the now-legendary concrete...inverted of course. We're told it will have a permanent home (I hope set in concrete) at the Chippewa location.
The now 80 year old Ted Jr. has recently cut a few more TV spots, giddily informing the citizenry about the milestone anniversary and once again reminding us that "it really is good ...." We all know the schmaltzy tagline, we all know and love Ted, we all love seeing him plateside on Cardinal telecasts along with his wife Dottie, and we all love those concretes. I just can't believe it took me 50 years to hear the story. -- George Mahe
