Chock full o'Nuts
Encyclopedia
Chock full o’Nuts is a chain of lunch counter
s in New York City that spawned a brand of coffee
.
to theater-goers. In 1926, he opened a store on Broadway
and 43rd Street, and began selling coffee and sandwiches. By the 1960s, the chain had approximately 80 restaurants in the New York City area. Hygiene was a selling point, with the sandwiches advertised as "untouched by human hands". Cooks used tongs to assemble them.
Their signature "nutted cheese" sandwich, made of cream cheese and chopped nuts on dark raisin bread, cost a nickel with a cup of coffee when the company was founded. When coffee prices went up in the 1950s, Black, like other restaurateurs, held to a 5-cent cup of coffee by watering it down. But he soon broke ranks and raised the price, announcing that he refused to compromise on quality.
In 1953, the coffee brand was introduced to supermarket
s. Baseball
star Jackie Robinson
ultimately became the company's vice president and director of personnel after retiring from the game. In 1961, Chock full o'Nuts introduced a brand of instant coffee
.
In the 1970s, the lunch counters gradually closed. About this time, with Black increasingly advanced in age, Steinfield, a major real estate operator in New York City who wanted the property that the restaurants occupied, declared war on Chock Full. He stated that when he won his actions he would close the restaurants. After Black died, the company sold its remaining 17 restaurants to the restaurant company Riese Bros. In 1988, investor Martin D. Gruss and companies he controlled purchased a 10-percent stake in the Chock Full o'Nuts Corporation, saying he might seek control of the company. In 1993, Chock Express stores were introduced.
The Sara Lee Corporation purchased Chock full o'Nuts for $238 million in 1999. In May 2006, it was purchased from Sara Lee by Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA, along with the MJB
, Hills Bros., and Chase & Sanborn coffee brands.
On September 10, 2010, the company announced it was returning to the lunch counter business by opening its first store in almost 30 years, on West 23rd Street between Broadway and 6th Avenue in Manhattan. The company said it planned to add stores and kiosks in New York City serving the "nutted cheese" sandwich and other traditional Chock Full O' Nuts menu items (plus new choices).
However, the company had to alter the lyrics from “Rockefeller’s money” to “a millionaire’s money” after being sued by New York governor Nelson Rockefeller
, who owned coffee interests in Latin America . Mid-2000s versions of the jingle replace “millionaire” with “billionaire.”
Lunch counter
A lunch counter is a small restaurant, much like a diner, where the patron sits on a stool on one side of the counter and the server or person preparing the food serves from the other side of the counter, where the kitchen or limited food preparation area is. As the name suggests, they were most...
s in New York City that spawned a brand of coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
.
History
The chain was founded by William Black (1903-1983), an American immigrant who sold nuts in Times SquareTimes Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
to theater-goers. In 1926, he opened a store on Broadway
Broadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
and 43rd Street, and began selling coffee and sandwiches. By the 1960s, the chain had approximately 80 restaurants in the New York City area. Hygiene was a selling point, with the sandwiches advertised as "untouched by human hands". Cooks used tongs to assemble them.
Their signature "nutted cheese" sandwich, made of cream cheese and chopped nuts on dark raisin bread, cost a nickel with a cup of coffee when the company was founded. When coffee prices went up in the 1950s, Black, like other restaurateurs, held to a 5-cent cup of coffee by watering it down. But he soon broke ranks and raised the price, announcing that he refused to compromise on quality.
In 1953, the coffee brand was introduced to supermarket
Supermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
s. Baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
star Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson
Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947...
ultimately became the company's vice president and director of personnel after retiring from the game. In 1961, Chock full o'Nuts introduced a brand of instant coffee
Instant coffee
Instant coffee, also called soluble coffee and coffee powder, is a beverage derived from brewed coffee beans. Instant coffee is commercially prepared by either freeze-drying or spray drying, after which it can be rehydrated...
.
In the 1970s, the lunch counters gradually closed. About this time, with Black increasingly advanced in age, Steinfield, a major real estate operator in New York City who wanted the property that the restaurants occupied, declared war on Chock Full. He stated that when he won his actions he would close the restaurants. After Black died, the company sold its remaining 17 restaurants to the restaurant company Riese Bros. In 1988, investor Martin D. Gruss and companies he controlled purchased a 10-percent stake in the Chock Full o'Nuts Corporation, saying he might seek control of the company. In 1993, Chock Express stores were introduced.
The Sara Lee Corporation purchased Chock full o'Nuts for $238 million in 1999. In May 2006, it was purchased from Sara Lee by Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA, along with the MJB
MJB (coffee)
MJB is an American brand of coffee currently owned by Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA, a company in the Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group. MJB is popular in the western United States, western Canada and Japan....
, Hills Bros., and Chase & Sanborn coffee brands.
On September 10, 2010, the company announced it was returning to the lunch counter business by opening its first store in almost 30 years, on West 23rd Street between Broadway and 6th Avenue in Manhattan. The company said it planned to add stores and kiosks in New York City serving the "nutted cheese" sandwich and other traditional Chock Full O' Nuts menu items (plus new choices).
Jingle
The Chock full o’ Nuts advertising jingle was based on the song, "That Heavenly Feeling", written by the duo Wayne and Bruce Silbert. Frequently played over the radio airwaves in the 1950s and 1960s, the jingle was originally sung and made famous by company founder William Black’s wife, singer Page Morton Black. The original lyrics went as follows:Chock full o’Nuts is that heavenly coffee,
Heavenly coffee, heavenly coffee.
Chock full o’Nuts is that heavenly coffee,
Better coffee Rockefeller’s money can’t buy.
However, the company had to alter the lyrics from “Rockefeller’s money” to “a millionaire’s money” after being sued by New York governor Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
, who owned coffee interests in Latin America . Mid-2000s versions of the jingle replace “millionaire” with “billionaire.”
In film
- The opening scene in the movie, The Seven-UpsThe Seven-UpsThe Seven-Ups is a 1973 American film released by 20th Century Fox. It stars Roy Scheider as a renegade policeman who is the leader of The Seven-Ups, a police team who uses dirty, unorthodox tactics to snare their quarry on charges leading to prison sentences of seven years or more upon...
(1973), occurs in front of an original Chock Full o'Nuts lunch counter on the corner of Madison Avenue and East 54th Street in New York City. - A Chock Full o'Nuts store sign appears in a scene from the movie Marathon ManMarathon Man (film)Marathon Man is a 1976 thriller film based on the novel of the same name by William Goldman. The film was directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Dustin Hoffman, Roy Scheider, and Laurence Olivier. The original music score was composed by Michael Small....
(1976) when Babe (Dustin HoffmanDustin HoffmanDustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
) runs across Broadway to meet Elsa (Marthe KellerMarthe KellerMarthe Keller is a Swiss actress and opera director. She studied ballet as a child, but stopped after a skiing accident at age 16...
) in her car after he had successfully eluded his captors. - A scene in the movie, Escape from New YorkEscape from New YorkEscape from New York is a 1981 American science fiction action film directed and scored by John Carpenter. He co-wrote the screenplay with Nick Castle. The film is set in the near future in a crime-ridden United States that has converted Manhattan Island in New York City into a maximum security...
(1981), occurs in a Chock Full o'Nuts store. - A Chock Full o'Nuts store sign appears in a scene from the movie, The King of ComedyThe King of Comedy (1983 film)The King of Comedy is a 1983 American dark comedy film starring Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis, and directed by Martin Scorsese. The subject of the movie is celebrity stalking...
(1983). - It appears as a commercial in a scene in the film George of the JungleGeorge of the Jungle (film)George of the Jungle is a 1997 live-action, family-oriented, romantic-adventure-comedy film based on the characters from the original cartoon of the same name. The film was produced by Walt Disney Pictures with Mandeville Films and originally released to movie theatres on July 16, 1997...
(1997). - In the movie The Bucket ListThe Bucket ListThe Bucket List is a 2007 comedy-drama film directed by Rob Reiner, written by Justin Zackham, and starring Academy Award-winners Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman...
(2007), the character played by Morgan FreemanMorgan FreemanMorgan Freeman is an American actor, film director, aviator and narrator. He is noted for his reserved demeanor and authoritative speaking voice. Freeman has received Academy Award nominations for his performances in Street Smart, Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption and Invictus and won...
jokes that he wishes to be buried in a Chock Full o'Nuts can.
In television
- In the premiere episode of the ABCAmerican Broadcasting CompanyThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
series Eli Stone, the title character carries his father's ashes in a Peanuts can, scattering them at a mountain in Chock Full o' Nuts, India. - During a scene in the "Smoking" episode of the NBC sitcom NewsRadioNewsRadioNewsRadio is an American television situation comedy that aired on NBC from 1995 to 1999. The series was created by executive producer Paul Simms, and was filmed in front of a studio audience at CBS Studio Center and Sunset Gower Studios...
, Bill McNeal drinks from a mug of coffee and quips "Chock full of nuts? They should call it chock full of flavor!" http://members.tripod.com/Sundae1212/smoking.htm - The exteriors of Chock Full o'Nuts restaurants can be seen on several episodes of SeinfeldSeinfeldSeinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
. - A can of Chock Full o'Nuts appears on the kitchen-counter set of the CBS sitcom The King Of QueensThe King of QueensThe King of Queens is an American sitcom that originally ran on CBS from September 21, 1998, to May 14, 2007.This show was produced by Hanley Productions and CBS Productions , CBS Paramount Television ,and CBS Television Studios in association with Columbia TriStar Television , and Sony Pictures...
, which is set in Queens, New York, and on the kitchen counter of the Uncle Junior set of the HBO television series The SopranosThe SopranosThe Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
, which is set in New Jersey.