Fosters Freeze is a chain of

fast-food restaurants A fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast food, fast-food cuisine and has minimal Foodservice#Table service, table service. The food served ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Its first location, on

La Brea Avenue La Brea Avenue is a prominent north-south thoroughfare in the Los Angeles, California, City of Los Angeles and in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California. La Brea is known for having diverse ethnic communities, and m ...

Inglewood, California Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, in the Greater Los Angeles, Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the city had a population of 107,762. ...

, was opened by George Foster in 1946 and is still operating. The chain's name refers to its soft-serve ice milk and

milkshakes A milkshake (sometimes simply called a shake) is a sweet beverage made by blending milk, ice cream, and flavorings or sweeteners such as butterscotch, caramel sauce, chocolate syrup, or fruit syrup into a thick, sweet, cold mixture. It may a ...

. Its marketing slogan is "California's Original

Soft Serve Soft serve, also known as soft ice, is a frozen dessert and variety of ice cream, similar to conventional ice cream, but softer and less dense due to more air being introduced during freezing. Soft serve has been sold commercially since the lat ...

." Its

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...

is Little Foster, a smiling ice cream cone.

History

George Foster moved to California after World War II to open outlets for

Dairy Queen International Dairy Queen, Inc. (DQ) is an American multinational fast food chain founded in 1940 and currently headquartered in Bloomington, Minnesota. The first Dairy Queen was owned and operated by Sherb Noble and first opened on June 22, ...

, since he owned the development rights in the state. However, state laws protecting the dairy industry prevented the use of ''dairy'' in restaurant names. So instead, in 1946, Foster opened a restaurant named after himself, ''Foster’s Old Fashion Freeze''. (The apostrophe was later dropped.) In 1951, he sold the chain's 360 locations for $1 million. By 1987, it had been reduced to 189 locations. El Pollo Loco signed a master franchise contract with Fosters Freeze in 1994, allowing service of Fosters Freeze soft-serve ice cream in El Pollo Loco locations. In 2002, 163 El Pollo Loco locations sold Fosters Freeze products, and their overall sales increased by three to six percent. The contract ended in 2014. The historical significance of Fosters Freeze restaurants attracts patrons and has united community members to preserve them. In 2006, residents of Menlo Park presented their city council a petition with about 400 signatures to prevent the demolition of their local Fosters, although it finally closed in 2015. The Santa Cruz location is listed in the city's historic building survey. In 2015, a restaurant franchise investment group bought Fosters Freeze. It modernized the brand and operations; sales have increased every year since then. As of 2021, the company plans to add locations for the first time since 2006. As of March 2025, there are 62 Fosters Freeze locations, all in California.

In popular culture

The Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their f ...

song "

Fun, Fun, Fun "Fun, Fun, Fun" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1964 album '' Shut Down Volume 2''. Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, it is one of their early songs that defined the idyllic pop aesthetic later dubbed the " Ca ...

" was inspired by the Fosters Freeze location in

Hawthorne, California Hawthorne is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California. It is part of a seventeen-city subregion of the Los Angeles metropolitan area commonly known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay. As of the 2020 United States cens ...

. * The Fosters Freeze in

Atwater Village, Los Angeles Atwater Village is a neighborhood in the Los Angeles City Council District 13, 13th district of Los Angeles, California. Much of Atwater Village lies in the fertile Los Angeles River flood plain. Located in the Northeast Los Angeles, northeast r ...

appeared in the movie ''

Pulp Fiction ''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American independent crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino from a story he conceived with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; It tells four intertwining tales of crime and violence ...

''. * In the drama film Twentynine Palms, the main characters eat soft serve at a Fosters Freeze.

References

External links

* {{Fast-food chains of the United States 1946 establishments in California Restaurants established in 1946 Fast-food chains of the United States Fast-food poultry restaurants Fast-food franchises Ice cream parlors in California Companies based in San Bernardino County, California Organizations based in Inglewood, California Regional restaurant chains in the United States