Ted Drewes Frozen Custard – Chippewa
6726 Chippewa StreetOne last stop before we left St. Louis.
We had just spent four hours at the St. Louis Zoo and were starting to make our trek north. The vacation continued in Peoria, IL for a couple of days, but there was one last thing I wanted to do and I knew no one would have a problem with it.
If you’re going to St. Louis, you have to stop at Ted Drewes. On a hot day that was spent mostly outside, frozen custard was exactly what we needed before we started the next leg of our journey.
Ted Drewes Frozen Custard has two locations in St. Louis. The older of the two is on Grand Avenue and used to be their flagship location. The one we stopped at was on old Route 66…now known as Chippewa Street. This location, on the southwest side of the city, opened in 1941. At the time, this was the fourth Ted Drewes with the original location actually being in St. Petersburg, Florida. The first St. Louis location was on Natural Bridge Avenue. Both of those locations closed before 1960.
I was expecting quite a long line as I was making the drive from the zoo to the roadside stand, but I was pretty happily surprised to see a manageable crowd. There is a large parking lot on either side of the building and there was plenty of available parking.
I grabbed a spot near the back of the lot on the east side. J wanted to feed B before we left town, so L and I got out to go get custard. J texted me her order from the car.
The building sits pretty close to the heavily trafficked road, but there is enough space for deep lines at all the windows. There’s an old menu board on either side of the building, so I had a pretty good idea what I was going for before I got in line.
When L and I got in line, we were five or six people deep, but it went really, really quick. I don’t think we were in line for more than a couple of minutes when it got to be our turn. There are twelve service windows on the building and I’m fairly certain all were open.
L is still pretty much only eating cones so I got her the smallest one they had. For myself, I couldn’t pass up the Concrete. I know. I get knock off versions all over the place, but Concrete’s are what Ted Drewes is known for….so I got one…with Peanut Butter Cups. I know..really original…but it’s so good. J was the adventurous one and ordered a Twisted Caramel sundae. The sundae part was a miscommunication. When J looked at the menu, she thought it was a Twisted Caramel Concrete Sundae, but it’s actually a choice of a sundae or a concrete. I didn’t quite explain well enough that it was either/or and by the time she figured it out, I had already ordered here a sundae.
The cost for the three treats was exactly $10. I was a little surprised, but happy they took credit. I figured this was going to be a cash only place, but they had the little stickers on their window so I paid that way instead of using my last bit of cash.
The three custard creations took just a few minutes to be passed through the window. I handed L hers and she started eating on the way back to the car. I got her in her car seat and J settled with her sundae balanced on top of a feeding baby before I even looked at mine.
Kid’s Vanilla Cone
The Twisted Caramel Sundae was interesting. The custard is topped with crumbled pretzels and salted caramel sauce. J said it was delicious. She probably wished I had gotten the Concrete so she would have more, but she was very happy with this stop on our way out of town.
Twisted Caramel Sundae
My Concrete was exactly what I expected it to be. It was thick. It was peanut butter cupy. It was delicious. My high expectations for such a well known place were met and then some.
Ted Drewes is a must find place if you’re in St. Louis. Sure, it’s kind of a touristy thing to do, but the locals also flock to this place. The frozen custard is amazing and the atmosphere of the old Route 66 stop is hard to beat.
SW Michigan Dining 