#Dutch crunch bread l.a. cracked#

An hour after that first store opened Frank had to order more. When Frank had ordered 60 pounds of chips for a starter, his brother had refused to fill the order.

The fact that Saratoga chips were named for a town in New York and were unknown in Holland didn’t stop the crowd. But a bright light shone on the sidewalk, two lovely girls in Dutch costumes scooped up the potato chips which came down a chute, still hot. The place was so small that customers couldn’t enter- they bought at a window as one buys theater tickets. That was the very heart of Los Angeles then. They got eight feet frontage at 236 ½ South Spring Street next to the Saddle Rock Café. They underlined that idea with their motto: ‘Made Clean, Kept Clean, Sold Clean.’” Lee Shippey continues: According to historian Cecilia Rasmussen, “Frank had reasoned that the name would be memorable and its Dutch heritage would connote cleanliness and freshness. In January 1915, with an investment of only $200, the Van de Kamp family opened their first food stand in downtown Los Angeles. “We’ll sell nothing but genuine Holland Dutch Saratoga chips.” “I’ll design Dutch costumes,” said Henrietta.

Theodore’s grandfather had been a baker in Holland and Theodore always had a lively interest in food. The four young people decided, in secret, to open a potato chip store. He made good potato chips but didn’t think it possible to retail them. Lawrence’s brother was in the potato chip business, selling to hotels and restaurants. His sister Marian also came out and the four young people decided they could use extra money. Theodore decided he could do insurance reporting in Los Angeles and came out in November, 1914. Lawrence had a job as a furniture salesman, which didn’t entirely satisfy him, but Henrietta wrote home that California was swell. His sister Henrietta had married Lawrence Frank, and they had moved to Pasadena. In 1938, LA Times columnist Lee Shippey told the story of the company’s early days:Īt the ripe age of 22, Theodore Van de Kamp was making reports for insurance companies in his native Milwaukee. Energetic young people from Milwaukee, of Dutch descent, but thoroughly “American,” coming to the Southland to start anew.

The Van de Kamp’s origin story is representative of Los Angeles itself. This family business was run out of a handsome Dutch Renaissance Revival factory in the heart of the LA “ bread bowl” in Glassell Park. At the company’s height, 320 Van de Kamp’s Holland Dutch Bakers dotted the West Coast. But for older generations of Angelinos, the name conjures up memories of delicious baked goods, swirling windmills, and waitresses dressed in comely “Dutch-style” blue and white costumes. Today, “Van de Kamp’s” generally makes one think of frozen fish sticks, available for sale in your local grocery store. Ad in the Los Angeles Times, April 3, 1926 They come to your tables bearing that exquisite fleeting fragrance found only on foods fresh from the oven. The wealth of 150 varieties of good things, baked in the old-fashioned Holland Dutch way, is sold in immaculate little neighborhood shops by courteous salesgirls in dainty Holland Dutch costumes. As well as doughnuts and pastries, tasty baked beans in family size pots, real Holland Dutch egg noodles, crisp, crunchy pretzels, and golden, oversize potato chips. And thirty-four varieties of wonderful cakes. And pies that win the men’s vote every time. And eighteen varieties of well-baked bread. Yet these rolls are but one choice out of sixteen kinds of delicious rolls and muffins at your neighborhood Van de Kamp store. Their brown, beckoning crusts are flecked with toasted grains, and thick in every bite, the little wheat nuggets of natural goodness are tender and flavorful as nut meats.

#Dutch crunch bread l.a. cracked#

Watch the ripple of “please” go ‘round the table whenever Van de Kamp’s cracked wheat rolls are served.