Sunday, May 23, 2021

Broken Chain: Sheridan's Frozen Custard, Cordova, TN

Today's post highlights Shelby County, TN, retail.


Broken Chain: A business which, at some point in its history, had multiple, similarly-functioning, physical locations where a customer could purchase goods and/or services, and which presently has a significantly diminished presence and/or value as a brand compared to the same brand in its heyday. - Zap Actionsdower

Ice cream, it seems, is a national pleasure. No matter where you are, you likely don't have to travel too far to find some. Even if it's from a chain such as Baskin-Robbins instead of a local shop, or simply from the freezer aisle in your local supermarket, ice cream can be found almost anywhere.

Frozen custard, on the other hand, is a different delicacy. Compared to ice cream, custard contains less air and more egg yolk, which makes it denser in texture and creamier or richer in taste. Additionally, custard is served at a higher temperature than ice cream, which helps the flavor last longer. 

However, while it's certainly more commonplace these days, custard still isn't nearly as prevalent as ice cream is. And not even 20 years ago, the situation was considerably more in ice cream's favor. As one article puts it, "although frozen custard has been around since the turn of the 20th century, it remained a local phenomenon in East Coast resorts and in areas of the Midwest, including Wisconsin and St. Louis." But all that changed at the turn of the 21st century, as entrepreneurs who traveled and experienced custard for the first time began to believe that custard businesses could be successful back home in their neck of the woods.

Original Sheridan's logo and cow mascot

Jim Sheridan was one such entrepreneur. On June 15, 1998, he opened the first Sheridan's Frozen Custard walk-up and drive-thru restaurant in a former Hardee's building at 6825 W. 75th Street in Overland Park, Kansas. Whether it was due to Sheridan's business or custard was simply already popular in that region, Sheridan's Frozen Custard enjoyed quick growth locally, reaching 13 locations in the Kansas City metro area by August 2003. 

2003 also saw a "nationwide explosion in the custard craze," as the Kansas City Business Journal puts it. Custard's Last Stand, the other of Kansas City's two main chains, itself grew to five stores, and "began selling franchises because it ran out of family members to run the stores themselves." In 2004, Wichita-based Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers "signed several deals to franchise up to 99 restaurants" in Kansas, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Texas. Texas, on that note, was being hailed as the "new custard frontier," according to the Dallas Business Journal, with just the northern portion of the state alone serving as "home to six shops specializing in frozen custard," and the possibility of seeing "nearly 20 more open over the next two years." Custard shops in Texas included Michigan-based Ross's Frozen Custard; Arkansas-based Shake's Frozen Custard; locally-owned chains Curly's Frozen Custard, Wild About Harry's, and Woolley's Frozen Custard; and even powerhouse Culver's, which at that time had 225 locations in the US. One Texas custard shop operator shared his logic on custard's Texas takeover: "I just knew that it (custard) was something that's really popular where I've been, and it's not here. So I just assumed if it's popular up there, why wouldn't it be popular here, when it's 100 degrees all summer long?"

Sheridan's was not to be left out of this "hot world of cool treats." Like its Kansas City rival, in 2003 Sheridan's began franchising, opening "its first two out-of-state locations in Watauga, Texas, and Fairview, Illinois," with "plans to open an additional six or seven stores out of the area next year." Indeed, just one year later, Sheridan's had grown to 24 US locations, and 27 by 2007, spread across 10 states. 2007 also saw the introduction of a fresh new look for the chain, as well as a new WOWIE! Card program. In 2009, Sheridan's even secured a deal to open "the only frozen custard store...in a professional sports venue in the country," at the Royals' Kauffman Stadium. They followed this up with a location at Kansas City's famous Crown Center, which still operates to this day.

Artwork for Sheridan's franchise brochure. Courtesy Jason Bays Blogspot

Updated Sheridan's logo and cow mascot

Sheridan's, Crown Center. Courtesy Devin Blackwood on flickr

This Google MyMaps creation, dated September 2008, attempts to show all of the locations of Sheridan's Frozen Custard. At least three of the pins are incorrect -- in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Canada -- and I can't guarantee that all of the locations were necessarily in operation at the same time; but if that is true, and given that all of the other locations do seem to check out, then it would appear that Sheridan's reached its peak at 33 stores across 10 states, ranging as far away as Vancouver and Henderson, Nevada, to Atlanta and Powell, Ohio.

--------------------------------------------------

The Mid-South was not immune to Sheridan's expanding reach. In fact, both of the Tennessee Sheridan's stores were located in the Memphis area, with the first, in Cordova, opening on December 9, 2003. A store in nearby Bartlett followed shortly thereafter. 

Over the years, franchisee Jason Roy continued to run the two Shelby County shops, but Sheridan's popularity elsewhere in the county slowly but surely declined -- resulting also in store closures and market exits. For example, Sheridan's left Atlanta in 2012, and Vancouver in 2017. Also in 2017, one of the Texas franchisees ended their contract with the brand, opting to continue as a local business under the new name J's Creamery. Sheridan's had whittled down to six states by 2015, and only four by 2019 -- the bulk of which were located in their core operating area of Kansas City. Fairview Heights continued to be the only other location outside of KC, besides Jason Roy's in the Memphis area.

Sheridan's Henderson, NV, "before" image. Courtesy Zomato

Sheridan's Henderson, NV, "after" image. The building now operates as a Starbucks. Note that the architecture has largely been unchanged. Courtesy LoopNet

That said, founder Jim Sheridan continued onward with his restaurant business, even debuting a new concept, called Unforked Eats and Sweets, in his home of Overland Park, KS, in 2011. Not only does Unforked feature Sheridan's signature frozen custard and other desserts, it also introduces "a variety of tacos, sandwiches and salads made from ingredients purchased at local farms," according to the Kansas City Business Journal. The first Unforked location converted and expanded an existing "2,700-square-foot Sheridan's store by enclosing the patio and adding 90 seats for indoor dining;" Jim Sheridan claims that he developed the Unforked concept because he traveled the US and noticed "a growing trend toward foods that are free from gluten, antibiotics and hormones."

While Unforked sounded promising, unfortunately its debut was mired in controversy, as some Sheridan's Frozen Custard franchisees alleged that Jim Sheridan "pilfered the chain's advertising fund to finance the opening of his new restaurant, Unforked." Which brings us back into...


In 2013, Ron Hendrix, a franchisee for Sheridan's Frozen Custard in Kansas City and St. Louis, filed suit against Jim Sheridan, alleging that "Sheridan stole over $500,000 from the advertising fund over several years and used it for his own personal interest, including the diversion of over $250,000" to Unforked. The lawsuit also contended that Sheridan "pumped up the advertising fund by negotiating a higher rebate with his frozen custard supplier...about 20 percent of the custard price, double the limit allowed in the franchise agreement" Sheridan had made with Hendrix and all other Sheridan's Frozen Custard franchisees.

Sure enough, later in 2013 five additional Sheridan's Frozen Custard franchisees filed suit against Jim Sheridan, with virtually identical allegations. One, "all of the franchisees were required to pay 1 percent of their gross sales to support an advertising and marketing fund, which was to be used for the benefit of all Sheridan's Frozen Custard restaurants. But the plaintiffs allege that Sheridan began pilfering money from the fund to use for personal purposes, such as developing Oakland Park restaurant Unforked." And two, "the suits also accuse Sheridan's company, Sheridan's Franchise Systems Inc., of requiring the franchisees to buy necessary products from more expensive suppliers so that SFS could get greater vendor rebates, which franchisees say is a violation of their contract." (Sounds kinda similar to McDonald's ice cream machine vendor.)

As if all of that wasn't enough, Jim Sheridan was also hit with lawsuits from the Unforked side of his business, with "two partners in Unforked, Kenny Keeler and Kandy Fletcher, [saying] he froze them out of ownership interests in the restaurant." I'm not sure how the Unforked lawsuit ended up, but the Kansas City Business Journal does at least report that Jim Sheridan in 2015 was cleared on the embezzlement claim brought forward by franchisee Ron Hendrix. In a press release issued after the summary judgment ruling, Sheridan said, "I'm glad that we can put this behind us and focus on serving our customers with the quality food they expect from Sheridan's Frozen Custard restaurants."

--------------------------------------------------

Whether due to fallout from these lawsuits or just general decline as discussed previously, Kansas local Rural Retail has shared with me that even in Sheridan's core market, several locations have continued to close over the last few years. Jim Sheridan's original store, the former Hardee's in Overland Park, terminated its franchise agreement in 2019, at which point Sheridan took back ownership of the shop as a corporate location. It's probably safe to assume that most if not all of the remaining Sheridan's stores in the Kansas City area are corporate-owned (unless Ron Hendrix is still in the picture). That said, the Fairview Heights franchise store continues to operate as a lone outlier, and Jim Sheridan's Unforked concept has grown to two locations, one of them right next to the Sheridan's Frozen Custard inside Crown Center. Reportedly, at least one of the remaining KC-area Sheridan's Frozen Custard shops has also expanded its menu to include some of Unforked's offerings.

Unforked, Crown Center. Courtesy Devin Blackwood on flickr

Notice, though, that in the above paragraph I made no mention of the two Memphis-area stores. Sadly, that's because they are no longer in operation. The Bartlett store closed first, sometime in 2018. Located at 6745 Stage Road, it was just this year converted into a Tops Bar-B-Q restaurant, which enclosed the traditional walk-up outdoor patio to allow for indoor seating for about 40 guests, according to the Commercial Appeal. Prior to the renovations, the 2,700-square-foot building shared the same standard footprint and design as most other Sheridan's stores, albeit absent the giant ice cream-- er, custard cones on the sides of the building. You can also see in the images below that the Bartlett store received an updated logo at some point, unlike Cordova (which we will see next).

Bartlett, TN, Sheridan's Frozen Custard. Courtesy Yelp

Note the scar left behind from the old logo, prior to its replacement. Courtesy Yelp

The building in 2021 as Tops Bar-B-Q. Note that the architecture remains unchanged. Courtesy The Commercial Appeal

Tops interior, order counter. Courtesy The Commercial Appeal

Tops interior, indoor seating. This area would likely have been the outdoor walk-up patio during the Sheridan's days. Courtesy The Commercial Appeal

Speaking of Cordova, that Sheridan's location, at 8075 Macon Road, continued to operate well after the Bartlett store's closure. In fact, I had been to the Cordova Sheridan's many times, and was fully planning on showcasing it in a Broken Chains Edition post as the last operating franchise of Sheridan's Frozen Custard not located anywhere near the chain's core area, given that Memphis is over 450 miles from Kansas City. Despite the separation, the Cordova Sheridan's continued to enjoy great profitability and popularity locally, even experiencing "a record year of sales" in 2020, according to the Appeal.

Unfortunately, though, it was not meant to be. The reason I'm sharing this post now is because it's actually fairly timely -- the Cordova Sheridan's closed for the final time just last month, on April 4, 2021. Always active on Facebook (including running monthly "win free custard for a year!" promotions -- I feel bad for the most recent winners, whose awards are now useless), franchisee Jason Roy's post announcing the closure read the following:

Thank you, Memphis, for a successful 17 years, 3 months and 4 days!

We have decided not to renew our franchise agreement and have sold the building to a local proprietor.

It has been a pleasure serving the community!

Memphis media outlets shared further elaboration on the situation. The Commercial Appeal revealed that Roy's franchise agreement with Sheridan's had actually ended in August 2020, and that he had had "difficulty in finding good employees over the past few years," among other issues. In addition, he had tried -- for two years, according to a Facebook reply -- to sell the business, but there were simply no takers, even with the record sales in 2020. As a result, when he was approached by David Raffanti, owner of locally-based ice cream and burger chain Dixie Queen, he sold the property, netting $360,000, per the Memphis Business Journal. Roy and his family are moving to Destin, Florida. But he does state that "If anyone would like to open a custard shop to fill the void left by Sheridan's, I would be happy to consult with them on how to do it."

Cordova Sheridan's "Win Free Frozen Custard for a Year!" promotion. Courtesy Facebook

Sheridan's 2007 rebrand included prolific use of icons. Some examples are showcased here.

So... with the Memphis-area locations gone, and Fairview Heights being the only location left outside of the Kansas City metro, Sheridan's Frozen Custard is definitively a broken chain, having enjoyed rapid, major expansion to very diverse areas of the country during the so-called "custard craze," only to just as quickly re-collapse inward to its original home as franchise agreements expired and tastes changed, leaving the chain with just eight remaining locations in present-day 2021. 

In most regards, I would assume that this means that custard is once again mostly just a regional treat, instead of a widespread one. Here in the Mid-South, for example, Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers has recently opened a handful of locations, but besides that, we don't really have any other custard options (unless there are some obscure locally-owned spots that I don't know about). I'm curious what has happened over the years to all of those other custard places I mentioned earlier in this post, too -- Wild About Harry's, Ross's, Shake's, Curly's, Woolley's. It looks like Custard's Last Stand, Sheridan's onetime Kansas City competitor, is down to just two locations itself. I suppose the custard craze of the early 2000s has simply melted away.

--------------------------------------------------

It may not be in operation any longer, but like I said, my intention -- before the store's untimely closure -- was always to have this post showcase the Cordova, TN, Sheridan's restaurant. As a result, you'll find below my photos and commentary on this store, supplemented with a few additional images I was able to find online. Please enjoy, and let me know in the comments if you ever got the chance to taste Sheridan's Frozen Custard, whether here in Cordova or at any of the chain's other locations, past or present.

Courtesy LoopNet



We begin with an aerial view of the property, followed by two different views of the building's right-hand side, which as you can see from the aerial view faces its small parking lot. These buildings truly did have a small footprint, just enough to get the job done. Makes me wonder if the parking is adequate enough for the ones that have been converted to other restaurants, such as the Bartlett Sheridan's that has become Tops Bar-B-Q. 

The left-hand side of the building consists of the drive-thru lane, which we never utilized -- we always went to the walk-up window instead. You can see from these pics that the walk-up window is very prominently located at the front of the building, and covered by an extension of the roofline, providing shade on hot summer days as well as shelter from any inclement weather. The patio accompanying the walk-up window has both benches and tables for customer use once they receive their orders.



Like the sides of the building, the front very prominently displays the Sheridan's Frozen Custard logo, clad in neon and joined by the message "Made Fresh All Day." Notice how this Cordova location stuck with the old logo its whole life, unlike the Bartlett store shown earlier. Also note how similar the architecture is -- again, pretty much every Sheridan's seems to have shared this same design and layout.



Moving onto the patio, the setup is simple: there's a wall of order windows in the middle, taking up nearly the entire space. Behind the windows is the kitchen, where you can see all of the workers preparing the custard orders. Note the super-sloped ceiling in there. And flanking the windows on either side are two giant poster boards.

We begin here by focusing on the poster board on the left. Since the left-side wall of the restaurant, as I mentioned earlier, is home to the drive-thru, that side of the patio is fenced in, meaning customer access comes primarily from the right-hand side, where the parking lot is. As a result, the menu occupies the poster board on the right, leaving this poster board on the left to promote other things such as the Cordova Sheridan's social media handles and VIP program. Notice that Jason Roy's two locations once had their own website, sheridansmemphis.com. That page has since been disabled.



As promised, the right-side poster board showcases Sheridan's full menu, which has quite the wide selection of treats. The menu design cleverly splits the different categories into individual boxes, making the menu easy to read. Specials are highlighted in the middle, surrounded on the edges by the more traditional sundaes, toppings, concretes, take-home options, and drink options, including shakes, smoothies, and Wowieccinos. Note, too, that the two poster boards bear the new Sheridan's logo at the top.

Image source unknown

Courtesy Sheridan's

Unfortunately I don't have any food pictures of my own to share, so here's one from online. Sheridan's boasts many different flavors and specialties, as you saw on the menu earlier. I'm sure I usually got something fairly simple though, such as a vanilla concrete with Reese's mixed in. (A concrete is a mixed custard, as defined in the other image above.) I'm not super adventurous with my desserts most of the time, haha. 

According to the Commercial Appeal, the Dirt & Worms concrete was especially popular here at the Cordova Sheridan's.



Returning our attention to the patio, the above two pics show more of the seating options available to patrons. Again, as I said, some benches have tables, some do not -- but do you really need a table for a handheld treat?

In the background in the second pic, you can see the Malco Cordova Cinema located across the street from this Sheridan's. I'm sure many moviegoers gave this place late night business on more than one occasion!



One more shot of the wall of walk-up order windows, followed by a close-up of one of them showing Sheridan's summer hours for the year (these photos were taken in 2019) alongside some other messages. If you look closely on the other side of the windows in the top image, you'll be able to see a neat clock on the wall. That was the best shot I was ever able to get of it myself, but thankfully I found some better ones online:

Courtesy Google Maps

Courtesy flickr

The top pic you see here actually is of this Cordova Sheridan's location, while the bottom one is not; but either way, they both showcase the unique Sheridan's neon clock, which surely must be original to the restaurant given the presence of the old cow mascot. I never saw the neon lit up on Cordova's clock, so it's especially neat being able to see that in the bottom image above. Hopefully someone got to salvage that piece when this restaurant closed...


Leaving the patio once again, here's a close-up shot of the Sheridan's logo and towering custard cones to either side of it, as seen on the right-side wall of the building. As I've mentioned, pretty much every Sheridan's I've seen photos of in my research has looked identical to this one, indicating a very common design. Unfortunately, remove the cones and it's pretty much just a box without any easily identifiable traits... but, there's still that chance that you'll be able to come across a former Sheridan's somewhere and recognize its architecture, such as with that Henderson, NV, store shared earlier in the post.

For more on the chain's architecture, here are the comments shared on Sheridan's website back in 2003, courtesy of the Internet Archive: 

The building itself was a mission. Jim encountered strict zoning laws, which prohibited him from realizing his original idea of a classic custard shop. Still, Jim fought for aesthetic integrity and won a few details which set his building apart from others. Today, Sheridan's stands slightly closer to the street than neighboring businesses do, boasts 3-D custard cones on the sides of the building, and attracts crowds with its friendly look, clean beacon of light, touch of chrome, and of course, Sheridan's stellar reputation.


Out in the parking lot -- actually in the next lot over, if I remember correctly -- was the Sheridan's catering and fundraising van. I wonder how often those services were utilized.

The van is obviously custom designed insofar as the graphics are concerned; I imagine it's not like Sheridan's corporate mandated any sort of standardized design for this sort of thing. We see the new cow mascot on the hood, and the Sheridan's logo and location/contact info on the sides of the van. Notice that the van was never updated to reflect the Bartlett Sheridan's closure, with the text still reading "Bartlett & Cordova."



One more right-side view of the building featuring the logo and custard cones, followed by a view toward the back as we prepare to approach the drive-thru lane. Even though I never used the drive-thru, I still wanted to be sure and get some pictures of it, for completeness' sake.


Courtesy LoopNet

As at the front of the building, the drive-thru consisted of two poster boards, the first one listing all the social media stuff and the second showing the actual menu. The speaker box, of course, was located beside the latter. I wonder if the first poster board ever had something different on it back in the day; it feels rather useless and unnecessary to have two in the drive-thru lane, but with only one showing the menu.


Image courtesy

The top pic in this set is my last one from the June 2019 visit on which I took most of my pictures for this post; it's not a great shot by any stretch of the imagination, close-cropped and taken out a window as we exited the parking lot (and with gray skies, to boot), but it's the only one I ever got showing any portion (however small) of the left-side wall of the building. From the little bit that you can see, it appears identical to the right-side wall, except with an additional awning between the custard cones to provide shelter over the drive-thru window. I'm not sure if there was Sheridan's signage on that side or not.

The bottom pic shows an overview of the entire structure, courtesy of a website claiming to list "five places to indulge in the best ice cream in Memphis." I guess one of those is gone now :/  This other website has even more pictures of the Cordova Sheridan's, although most of them are similar to the ones I took so I didn't post any of them here. Notice that his review was written less than two weeks before the restaurant ultimately wound up closing for good...

Something else worth mentioning about those days immediately before the abrupt closure is that, on March 29, 2021, the Cordova Sheridan's posted to Facebook that they had uncharacteristically used up all of their chocolate and vanilla supply, and thus had to close temporarily. They were back open and restocked March 30, only to close permanently on April 4. I wonder if any of that had to do with the Dixie Queen deal being in the works, and Sheridan's corporate starting to limit the supplies provided to the Cordova store as a result. Not to mention also that the franchise agreement had been expired for eight months by that point -- it was very kind of corporate to let Jason Roy continue to operate his location while trying to sell the franchise! Too bad that was unsuccessful, though :(



We'll close out this post with my final-ever photo of Sheridan's, taken on a nighttime visit (my last) in November 2020 -- I love how the neon turned out -- as well as a shot of the classic, old-logo-style "Thank You" sign at one of the property's exits back onto Macon Road. You will be missed, Cordova Sheridan's... but here's to hoping the rest of the shrunken Sheridan's Frozen Custard empire will continue to stick around, at least.

--------------------------------------------------

I hope y'all enjoyed this post, and again, if you have any Sheridan's memories to share, please feel free to drop us a line in the comments below. I'm sure I've probably gotten a lot of you hungry for frozen custard or ice cream, so go ahead and indulge your sweet tooth -- I went to Area 51 Ice Cream after writing the first three-quarters of this post (yum!) -- and I'll see you back here next month as our ongoing Fred's series continues! Until then and as always... thanks for reading, and have fun exploring the retail world wherever you are :)

Retail Retell

UPDATE, October 2021: Since the publication of this post, two further Sheridan's locations have closed, leaving the company with just six surviving stores (plus two Unforked restaurants), according to Rural Retail.

16 comments:

  1. That's sad to hear Sheridan's closed its last local location to you, especially since the Cordova location in particular seemed to be a favorite of yours. I've never heard of Sheridan's until this post, as well as most of those other regional custard start-ups mentioned in the post (besides Freddy's and Culver's, anyway - those guys seem to have found their place in the custard world!) I guess custard isn't much of a thing in Florida, although like the person in Texas said, it's always hot here too!

    Speaking of custard in Florida, besides a few outside chains like Freddy's and Culver's, I really can't think of any other solely custard focused places here in Florida (or at least in my general area). Culver's has some locations locally to me, and that place has quite the following - if not just for the custard, for the other food as well (as like Freddy's, they serve burgers too). I've never been to Culver's or Freddy's, and thinking about it, I can't say I've ever actually had custard either. One of these days I'll have to venture to Culver's or Freddy's and try some, and get the whole picture of the difference between custard and ice cream! On the topic of ice cream and broken chains, we have a local ice cream-related broken chain here as well I need to pay a visit to - my to do list goes on and on!

    It was also interesting reading that linked article about the McDonald's ice cream machine hack, and how it relates to the whole situation with Sheridan's. We have a similar situation at work with the air pillow machines we use to make those puffy air pockets that are used to pad items in packages. From the manufacturer, they come where you're unable to access any of the settings to fix the machine if it keeps jamming or overheating, with no mention of how to override any of that in any manual. There's a special button combination you have to press on the machine to put in a secret code to access those settings, a code I ended up getting from a technician (who I believe was tired of me calling all the time about those broken machines)! So now I have all the machines set to where we can access the menus, so now we can fix them all by pressing a few buttons (and not have to go through corporate's tech support red tape!).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I was very sad to hear of its closure, and kind of taken aback too, since I wasn't expecting it. However, realistically it probably was only a matter of time anyway, so I guess I can take solace in that. Not living in Memphis I didn't go here very regularly, but we did go every so often on the trips we did make into town. Area 51 (as mentioned at the end of the post), on the other hand, is an ice cream shop that I have been going to with increasing regularity -- so it's probably just as well for my healthy eating habits that I'll have to forego those visits soon once I move :P

      It is strange how custard isn't as widespread as ice cream, especially in areas that are so hot like Florida! At least you have Freddy's and Culver's though; we don't even have Culver's around here, though I've heard they are very good. I think I've even eaten at one before, but I can't quite remember for sure. I can at least confirm that Freddy's is delicious, at least in my opinion -- hopefully you'll enjoy it also, if/when you give it a try! Of course, I'm referring more to the burgers and fries than the custard, but that's good too...

      That ice cream-related broken chain you have on your radar sounds intriguing -- can't wait to hear more! And yeah, I thought that McDonald's article was wild as well. It sure seems like situations like that are much more common than you tend to hear about, what with that story of the air pillow machines at your work being similar, too. Very frustrating for all the middlemen and end users, I'm sure! Just so those other folks who are keeping everyone else in the dark can laugh all the way to the bank... Glad you were able to get that special code and bypass all of the red tape, at least!

      Delete
  2. Texas might have been the next frozen custard frontier, but I have never heard of Sheridan's Frozen Custard! If we had any locations here in Houston, it certainly skipped my attention! That said, there is a local place near me that has been around since the late 1990s I think called Connie's Frozen Custard and I know they are very popular. I don't know if this is still the case, but it was not unusual to see them have a long line at the building! Their Google rating of 4.8 probably shows how well-liked they are. Even with this, I've never been there! I have been to the El Gallo Mexican Restaurant in the shopping center though. Link: https://goo.gl/maps/yHHNvYt13H5Mdv149

    We have had Freddy's Custard & Steakburgers here for quite some time. There is one near me as an outparcel at the local Wal-Mart. However, I've never been there either! As you can tell, I'm not one for going out for ice cream, lol.

    We have a place nearby called Twistee Treat that has an ice cream cone shaped storefront. That place is quite popular as well in my observation, but I've also never been there: https://goo.gl/maps/P6EmXxAb2xHE6w9v7

    In between that and the Connie's, which are pretty close together on the same road, is the retail spot all the Houston retail enthusiasts are buzzing about right now. There's an old Target which opened in ~1981 and then relocated in 2006 that's becoming Houston's first (and only...for now at least) Ollie's. Yep, our first Ollie's is opening up in my area! Houston retail enthusiasts are pretty excited about this!

    Are you familiar with Bruster's Ice Cream? There's a location on the path to where I used to work that I used to drive by all the time and I was always interested to know if they were pretty good (though, as you can guess, I never did actually go there, lol). They seem like a fairly large chain in the eastern half of the US so maybe you know something about them. Link: https://goo.gl/maps/dwWKP2EyTKTM51Z77

    In unrelated news, and in a shameful attempt at self-promotion, lol, keep an eye out for another new guest post from me over at Houston Historic Retail later this week. I'll be looking at what could be called a broken chain that aimed to be a fairly revolutionary discount store concept tried by a well-known and formerly successful retailer. Only 13 stores of this kind opened before the concept was scrapped (allegations of fraud were present here as well so there is a parallel to this broken chain post!), but there was one location in the Houston area and also one in Hattieburg, MS. I don't know if there were any other in MS or the Memphis area, but it's possible. I think you'll like this post so keep an eye out for it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Google MyMaps link I found shows one Sheridan's location in Lubbock, TX, and a cluster around Dallas-Fort Worth, but besides those, it doesn't appear there were any other Sheridan's locations in the state -- so I don't think you missed anything in Houston! I mean that in the sense of not having noticed Sheridan's, of course, and not to slight the chain by saying they aren't worth tasting, because they are very good. But it does sound like Houston at least has custard covered from Connie's -- whose sign I very much like, by the way!

      Ha, to be honest I really wasn't either, at least not until my parents got me into Area 51 locally. I remember some trips to the gas station Baskin-Robbins as a kid, as well as TCBY, but after both of those closed we didn't really go on ice cream trips anymore. So such trips just didn't become a part of my life again until recently. Truthfully I don't eat a whole lot of any type of dessert, but it's always fun to indulge every once in a while!

      Interesting -- I'm familiar with Twistee Treat, but only because it's very big in Florida, and I've heard about it from those folks! Funny that they're in Texas also -- though I probably shouldn't be surprised about that XD

      I saw the excitement in the comments section at je's recent blog post! I just replied there and said that we only got Ollie's fairly recently around here too, in Memphis and in Mississippi. Of the four locations I've been to, one is clearly head and shoulders above the rest, but even still I do like Ollie's as a whole and was just as excited when they came here. I bet you'll like them a lot.

      I am familiar with Bruster's! Only a little bit though, haha. They used to have a location in Southaven, co-branded with Nathan's Hot Dogs of all things. That closed many years ago, and the building has since been converted into a Steak Escape, which itself always seems to be on the verge of shutting down based on the lease listings I see. Behind it is another restaurant building that didn't last very long, converting from Abner's to Gus's (but I digress, lol). Besides all that though, I don't know anything else about Bruster's, nor did I ever visit there to know what they're like. I wonder if they've shrunk down considerably from their peak, too.

      Sounds exciting -- can't wait to read it! I'm certainly very intrigued by the hints you've given here. I have a slight idea of what it might be, but then again I also think I may be totally wrong on that, especially given the fraud angle! So I'll keep my eyes peeled for the post...

      Delete
    2. One of the problems with ice cream and similar frozen treats is that although it may seem like the perfect snack on a hot day, that perfect snack might quickly turn into a messy, disappearing snack if it's eaten outside on a hot day or if it's ordered 'to go' and has to be carried in the car! Ordering ice cream in a cup instead of a cone does help, but it also takes away from some of the fun! Eating ice cream indoors in an air conditioned building can also reduce the problem, but do you really need ice cream to cool down if you are indoors?! I'm sure those of you from MS, TN, and FL will surely know about the ice cream melting problem and related dilemmas!

      It seems that AFB has some similar unfamiliarity with these places as I do. At least I'm not alone in that regard! I should add that we do have Culver's here as well, but the only one I know of is on the edge of town and not that close to me.

      Although I have not been to an Ollie's, it seems like many other Houston retail enthusiasts have been to one elsewhere and they've been waiting for them to come down here. It's kind of funny that the arrival of a closeouts store is generating so much excitement here in Houston, but we're not exactly seeing too many new B&M retailers that are interesting so it's worth celebrating what we can get, lol. I am looking forward to checking out Ollie's when the new store opens. It's not far from me at all. Hopefully this first local location will be like the good location that is in your area.

      As for the upcoming HHR blog post, it's kind of funny. I was planning on doing a blog post where I would pull up an old local newspaper that's freely available from the Texas History Portal and then talk about some of the retail ads in it. I found one newspaper, flipped through it, and all of a sudden I started seeing an ad for what appeared to be a fairly large discount store with a funny name that I had never heard of before. I couldn't believe it especially since it's from my lifetime, but the one store in my area that did exist was on the other side of town and they probably only advertised in that community's newspaper (which is what I was reading). That led to further research and I discovered that it was an attempt by a large and established retailer (a name you'll surely be familiar with) at trying a rather revolutionary discount store! The revolutionary aspect attempted to resolve some issues that were causing people not to shop at the existing discount stores at the time. I go into that a little bit in the blog post.

      As for the fraud aspect, I do mention it in the blog post, but I didn't really get into it much. I did provide a link to a newspaper article from the time discussing the demise of the concept that does go into more detail about the fraud aspect. The fraud aspect, along with other problems, helped cause the demise of the larger chain (or at least a partial demise) a few years later.

      In addition to the broken chain, I did include some ads from known retailers in the blog post as was my original intention. Most of it is nothing special I suppose, but I did find a Target ad that might prove rather surprising to people only familiar with Target in more modern times! Well, stay tuned to HHR to see what that's all about! I think the article is going to be published Wednesday morning.

      Delete
    3. Ha, true! Yep, that's definitely a major issue with ice cream around here. I always get it in cups and generally eat it indoors or, in the case of Sheridan's, took it back to the car. Plus, frozen custard supposedly doesn't melt as easily or quickly as ice cream, though I'm not sure I believe that based on my experience, haha!

      I hear you, there aren't a lot of new retailers these days, so excitement over Ollie's is certainly understandable. I realized when commenting on Mike's HHR post today that I misspoke earlier: I've actually been to five Ollie's stores since they opened around here (totally forgot one of them, lol!). Six total, if you count the first Ollie's I visited years ago in Louisville, KY, on vacation. It's like a treasure hunt but you need to be wary of visiting too frequently, because the merchandise won't swap out -- just like a thrift store. I think that's the main difference between the really good one (at Wolfchase) and the rest... there may not be as much customer volume, so the merchandise seems to be a little older/less varied.

      Interesting! I'm sure that came as a surprise to you when you were doing that research, lol. It definitely sounds intriguing and now I'm pretty convinced it's not the one I was thinking of when I wrote my last reply, so I'm eager to learn what it's all about!

      Delete
  3. Hey, the first broken chain I've seen featured that I've actually visited! I don't remember the background, but on one of my trips to Portland growing up, we went out to the one in Vancouver. All I remember is that we were rather underwhelmed by it, and never bothered to go back (even though we went to Portland a lot and normally stayed in Vancouver since the hotels were cheaper, it seemed like a long drive to get over there). I tried to look it up when I went to Portland a couple years ago, but couldn't find it (since I didn't remember the name of the shop) -- looks like that's because it was already closed by that time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow, that's awesome! With broken chains posts I often don't expect others to have been to the same places, so it's very cool to hear that you also got to go to Sheridan's back in the day, even if it was just the one time. That's too bad that the Vancouver location didn't impress on that visit, but neat nonetheless that you went there. Are there other frozen custard options in your region, or was Sheridan's just a brief blip in that market?

      Delete
    2. Yeah, I certainly didn't expect to have visited any of the broken chains featured either! I think my family ended up deciding we just didn't really like frozen custard, so I've never really looked into it, but looking up frozen custard places brings up just one place in the Seattle region, which may or may not be out of business, so I guess it just isn't much of a thing here. Which is interesting, since we have lots of fancy ice cream/gelato/frozen yogurt places.

      Delete
    3. Yeah, that is kinda strange not to have custard places when you have all that other stuff, but tastes are very different in different regions, so I guess that makes enough sense. I don't know that we have any gelato places around here! And while we still have some frozen yogurt places, I think the froyo craze of several years ago when a bunch of those places popped up has long since ended...

      Delete
  4. A fine piece of chain breaking! I'll add a stop at a surviving Sheridan's to my to-do list the next time I'm driving down I-70.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! And that sounds great -- be sure to let us know what you think.

      Delete
  5. My Family And I Are Grateful To Have Visited The Cordova, TN Location A Few Years Ago And Absolutely LOVED IT !!!! We Are Definitely Interested In Opening Franchise Locations For This FANTASTIC Place !!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It would certainly be great if Sheridan's were to make a return to the area!

      Delete
  6. The Watauga TX Sheridan’s actually had a bad fire when I was a kid (sometime in early 2010). I remember seeing it on fire on the way to my school that morning. The school was near it, so everyone was talking about it. They renovated the building, but it came back as a different chain. I was so sad because I loved going there and it was there one day and gone the next. I haven’t been to one since.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow, that definitely sounds like something that would capture everyone's attention! I'm glad it was rebuilt, but that's too bad it became something else besides a Sheridan's when it reopened.

      Delete

Have any info to share, or simply want to join the discussion? Please feel free to leave a comment! Comments are welcome on any and all posts so long as you adopt a username and do not post any malicious links. Comments are subject to moderation before being approved, so please be patient if your comment does not appear automatically. Please remain civil in your comments. If we decide your comment is inappropriate, we reserve the right to delete it.

Disclaimer: The Mid-South Retail Blog exists solely for educational and historical purposes. This blog claims no ownership of, or relation to, any organization, retail or otherwise, whose property may be featured in pictures or in links within posts. We are not affiliated with, or endorsed by, any entity featured on the blog. However, we do claim ownership of our content, unless it is credited otherwise. If you find any inaccuracies in our posts, please let us know in the comments or via email so that we can make any necessary changes. Information on the blog may be frequently updated without notice.