A Taste of St. Louis' Past
As the family story goes, Dad's Original Scotch Oatmeal™ Cookies
arrived in California from Scotland around 1900. Shortly thereafter, the parent
company began selling rights to the company name, making Dad's Cookie Company one
of the country's first franchised businesses. In 1927, one of the company's salesmen
passed through St. Louis and visited Carpenter's Ice Cream on Goodfellow Avenue.
After sampling the wares, Mr. Carpenter realized the unique flavor of the Scotch Oatmeal
Cookie would ideally complement his ice cream so he obtained the franchise for the St.
Louis area.
As Good Today as Yesterday!
Henry Renz Sr., a South St. Louis baker, bought Dad's Cookie
Company from Carpenter's Ice Cream in 1938. The Renz bakery at the corner of
Louisiana Avenue and Keokuk Street (shown below) became the new home of Dad's Cookie
Company where it remains to this day.
Henry "Hank" Renz Jr. took over the family operation in
1949 and continued the time-honored methods handed down from his father.
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Map & Directions from MapQuest
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And The Tradition Continues
In 1988, Dad's Cookie Company passed to yet another
generation of the Renz family, the Hastey brothers. Dad's Cookie Company
still provides the same old-fashioned service and excellence our customers have enjoyed
for 70 years.
A visit to our shop is truly a step into the past. Many of our
customers recall childhood visits to Dad's Cookie Company with a parent or
grandparent. The antique wood, the glass display cases, and the marble counters have
remained the same since 1938. We still weigh our cookies on the original bakery
scale and wrap them in a brown paper bag tied with white string. Stop by to see us
and start a family tradition of your very own.
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Old Locations
Records show that in addition to St. Louis, MO, the Dad's Cookie Company franchise had bakeries in the following North American locations during the 1900s:
Detroit, MI
Los Angeles, CA
Oakland, CA
Boston, MA
Baltimore, MD
Kansas City, MO
Cleveland, OH
Irvington, NJ
New York City, NY
Buffalo, NY
Seattle, WA
Dallas, TX
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St. Paul, MN
St. Petersburg, FL
Little Rock, AR
Denver, CO
Omaha, NE
Indianapolis, IN
Memphis, TN
New Orleans, LA
Oklahoma City, OK
Sommerville, MA
Montreal, Canada
Toronto, Canada
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To our knowledge, all have either closed or have been bought out by other companies.
Dad’s Cookie Company of St. Louis still proudly produces the original recipe Dad's Original Scotch Oatmeal™ Cookies.
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Dad’s Cookie Jars
There have been various versions of
Dad’s Cookie Jars™ over the decades. Some were made of glass with a glass or metal/tin
lid, some jars were even made of plastic.
The jars most widely distributed throughout the years were 1-gallon, 2-gallon, and 3-gallon glass jars.
The 3-gallon jars were specially designed with the words PROPERTY OF DAD’S COOKIE CO. molded into the surface in raised lettering.
These jars are no longer made, and unfortunately if you own one without a lid,
replacement lids are not available anywhere.
The smaller 1- and 2-gallon jars usually had a paper label or silk-screened
water transfer decal. The labels came in various shapes. The larger 2- gallon
jars are the same dimensions as the jars many individuals are familiar with as
"pickle jars" on deli shop counters. The 1-gallon jars are the same design,
only on a smaller scale.
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