Fosters Freeze - History

History

The Fosters Freeze franchise in Hawthorne, California is known to be the location at which Beach Boy band member Dennis Wilson saw the girl in the Thunderbird he sang about in his song titled “Fun, Fun, Fun.” Recently the USA softball team was seen eating at the Salinas location before heading off to Beijing to participate in the 2008 Olympics. Also, the Atwater location was used in a scene of the movie, Pulp Fiction where Bruce Willis’ character runs over Ving Rhames. The historical significance that Fosters Freeze has is what attracts patrons and unites community members to try to keep developers from taking away a piece of nostalgia from them. In 2006, a neighborhood in Menlo Park, located in northern California, presented to their city council a petition with about 800 signatures to avoid demolition of their local Foster’s.

After 60 years in the business, Fosters Freeze has 92 locations in California as of 2010. Some of the company's first locations in California included Sunnyvale, Mountain View, and Palo Alto. The Palo Alto location, across the street from Stanford University's Campus on El Camino, remains virtually unchanged since c. 1950. The oldest locations are often historic landmarks. In its humble beginnings it was bigger than McDonald’s, Del Taco, and other chains.