After 141 years in enterprise, iconic Austin sweet maker Lammes Candies is closing its doorways, marking the top of one of many metropolis’s oldest family-run companies and a longtime supply of pralines, Longhorns, and vacation traditions for generations of Texans.
Homeowners cited “altering market situations and the long-term sustainability of our operations” as the rationale behind the choice, based on a letter posted on the Spherical Rock retailer, which closed April 24. The discover mentioned the flagship Airport Boulevard retailer, 5330 Airport Blvd., will stay open “a bit longer so that everybody has the chance to buy their favourite Lammes Candies deal with” earlier than the enterprise shuts down for good.
Though the model is most intently related to Austin, the place it maintained its manufacturing services and retail shops, the candies are broadly out there at spots like Spec’s, Walmart, and Central Market all through San Antonio.
Lammes traces its roots to 1878, when William Wirt Lamme arrived in Austin from St. Louis and opened the Purple Entrance Sweet Manufacturing unit at 721 Congress Ave. That founding date needed to be revised as a result of Lamme misplaced that authentic enterprise in a poker recreation. Both date, Lammes continues to be the town’s longest working family-owned enterprise.
“He misplaced the enterprise in a poker recreation within the spring of 1885, so his son got here down from Ohio, paid the playing debt, regained the enterprise, and it has been family-owned and operated since 1885 proper right here in Austin, Texas,” co-owner Bryan Teich mentioned in an organization video posted on YouTube in 2015.
The enduring lamb signal outdoors Lammes Candies’ Airport Boulevard flagship has grow to be one in every of Austin’s most recognizable classic storefront markers.Lammes Candies/Instagram
The enterprise was later renamed Lammes Candies and moved to 919 Congress Ave., ultimately increasing to Austin places in Twin Oaks, on The Drag at 2262 Guadalupe St., and at Delwood Buying Heart. Its present flagship retailer at 5330 Airport Blvd. opened in December 1956, with later suburban outlets at Barton Creek Sq. Mall, Anderson Lane, Lakeline, and Spherical Rock.
The corporate grew to become identified for its Texas Chewie Pecan Pralines, launched in 1892 utilizing pecans gathered from bushes alongside the Colorado River, together with its well-known Longhorns — caramel, pecan, and chocolate candies much like turtles. It is also the go-to cease for chocolate-covered strawberries for Valentine’s Day.
Lammes has mentioned it launched the primary soda fountain within the Southwest and Austin’s first neon signal with its lamb brand, based on the corporate video. Austin nonetheless has a handful of long-running legacy companies, from Scholz Garten, based in 1866, to East Austin’s Inexperienced & White Grocery (opened within the Nineteen Thirties) and family-run establishments like Soiled Martin’s Place, which opened in 1926.
For a lot of Austinites, Lammes was tied to household rituals as a lot as sweet. On an Easter Fb publish about Austin Reminiscences, clients reminisced about Christmas present containers, chocolate-covered strawberries, black licorice eggs, bitter cherry drops, and the shop’s well-known chewy pralines.
Former staff remembered Valentine’s Day strawberry rushes and first jobs behind the counter. One commenter wrote, “You may’t purchase the odor on-line. I counsel you stroll within the door.”
That deep worker loyalty additionally grew to become a part of the corporate’s id. In the identical firm video, homeowners mentioned a lot of the administration workers had labored there for 20 to 35 years and famous one worker had been with the corporate for 76 years.
That worker was Mildred Hamilton Walston, an Austin native who started working at Lammes in 1941 and stayed for greater than 75 years. In her 2019 obituary, her household mentioned she thought-about Lammes “a second household.”
