In 1956, a small candy and ice cream shop started selling a tasty ice cream bar and word spread quickly. Kids and adults alike from the neighborhood crowded into the small store and bought a hand-dipped bar, savoring its rich creamy flavor and gladly paying a higher price. Leo Stefanos, a Greek immigrant who owns the store, originally created the bar for his children, who loved ice cream and chased trucks when they heard the familiar tinkle of bells announcing his presence on the street. He soon began offering them to his customers and they became a quiet sensation. Although they cost a bit more than the standard Eskimo pie and good humor, people put their money into it long before premium ice cream made its debut. They were so good.
Thirty years later, the youngsters grew up and began distributing Dove Bars to supermarkets and pharmacies in the Chicago area, where they were accepted alongside other premium ice cream brands whose time had come. No longer made in the back of the original shop, production became a big business, with eight employees hand-dipping the production line 24 hours a day, and by 1986 the family had grown from producing 500 to day to a staggering 72,000 bars a day and moved to a distribution plant in suburban Chicago. Concerned about maintaining quality, which had long been attributed to their father’s candy-making skills, the brothers finally agreed to go national when the Mars Candy Company wisely scooped them up before anyone else and sales exploded, surprising even the family. March.
Over the years, the Dove brand has expanded into more ice cream flavors, chocolate toppings, and chocolate fudge, but the Dove name (not to be confused with soap) will forever be the symbol of rich, decadent ice cream. and one of America’s favorites. favorite indulgences.
The Mars Company was a natural for Dove Bars. Started in 1911 by Franklin Mars, who had learned how to dip chocolate by hand from his mother, they began creating popular sweets, beginning with the Snickers bar in 1930, followed by Milky Way and Three Musketeers. Still a privately owned conglomerate of the Mars family, they have taken Dove bars to new heights without compromising on quality. But like many beloved products that started locally, nothing will replace those early days when neighborhood kids could ride their bikes to the Dove Candies store and buy a Dove bar.
