Sanders Confectionery
Sanders Chocolates was first opened by Fred Sanders on June 17, 1875. The business grew to more than 57 stores in the Great Lakes Region and elsewhere. Sanders retailers sold candy, fudge toppings, and baked goods, as well as light lunches and an assortment of desserts at fountain counters, including Ice Cream Sodas, Sundaes and Hot Fudge Cream Puffs.
Sanders became a leading purveyor of confections in the region and started selling directly to national supermarket chains, as well as to other retailers in the area. In 2002 Morley Candy Makers purchased the Sanders name and original recipes to add to its own tradition since 1919.
The company was founded by German-born Frederick Sanders Schmidt on June 17, 1875, when he opened a candy store with nothing besides his childhood dreams, a barrel of borrowed sugar and a leased shop on Woodward Avenue at Gratiot in downtown Detroit . Schmidt, who went by his middle name, had originally opened his first shop in Chicago but relocated to Detroit after his Chicago store was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1871. Ice cream was soon added to the menu, then baked goods and sweet cream sodas. One popular story asserts that on a hot summer day, the store was packed with thirsty customers, and Sanders noticed that the sweet cream used for the sodas had gone sour. So he quickly substituted ice cream, and it became the talk of the town. Sanders is among those who claim to have invented the ice cream soda. Business became so brisk that the store expanded and Sanders hired more employees.
“The Pavilion of Sweets,†Sanders’ most famed confectionery shop, opened on Woodward in 1891. It had a red and white awning and tower that was similar to a mosque. It was here that the nation’s first ice cream soda was supposedly born, though Sanders is not the only man to stake his claim for inventing the drink. One evening during the summer of 1876, Sanders ran out of fresh cream for his cream sodas. In an effort to please the store full of eager customers, he used a scoop of ice-cream instead. His patrons were thrilled with the taste and word of the new beverage spread. The substitution of ice cream for regular cream became a customary offering at soda fountains and stores throughout the nation.
In addition to candy and the ice cream soda, hot fudge became one of Sanders’ prime products. Like other Sanders treats, the recipe was passed down through generations. Another especially sought after treat that has delighted "sweet tooths" for years is Sanders’ “Bumpy Cake,†named for the chocolate ganache that covers thick ridges of buttercream.
...
Wikipedia
