A popular hangout and fast-food restaurant in Sanger will be closing its doors for good Tuesday.
After decades of serving up burgers, fries and its famous, soft-serve ice cream, the Fosters Freeze on Academy Avenue will fill its final orders, and co-owner and long-time employee Minnie Medina says it will take a big part of her life with it.
Nearly 26 years after the day she first started working at the Fosters Freeze in Sanger, now co-owner, Minnie Medina will be closing its doors Tuesday for the last time.
“I have been here since I graduated high school and I’ve known so many people.” reminisced Medina.
People who came with their friends and family for good food, a good time and that famous Fosters Freeze, soft-serve ice cream.
“To me it means happiness,”laughed Medina. “It brings me happiness and it brings people together and they want to come and enjoy it with their family. “That’s what we want to give them, a nice time here eating a hot meal.”
Customer William Arnold know’s what he’ll be missing.
“I mean that’s cooked to order,” exclaimed Arnold pointing to a hot and juicy Fosters Freeze “Big Boss” burger. “You can’t beat that!”
“It’s a loss cause you know, everyone likes getting out of school or coming from work and getting a meal and then a sundae. I mean, Foster Freeze in general is pretty nostalgic here in the valley and every year you see them slowly going away and away and away. So, it’s going to be a loss for sure.”
It’s a loss Medina says she’ll be feeling too.
“I’ve known a lot of people here. I know them by name and they’ve all been coming these last few days to tell me how much they appreciate me. I’ve been given the opportunity to give them the same, you know, how I appreciate everyone here and everybody being so kind to me so, I’m going to miss it. I’m going to miss it.”
Medina says the reason she is leaving is not because of the economy.
Business is still good.
Medina says her kids are growing up and as a mom she just wants more time with them and her family.
The company’s website says Fosters Freeze was started by George Foster back in 1946, who opened his first ice cream shop in Inglewood in southern California, and it’s still open.
His unique soft-serve ice cream became so popular that he opened a chain of restaurants adding all-american favorites like hamburgers and fries, and this was years before McDonald’s and Burger King were around, it says.
The company even claims the Beach Boys song, “Fun, Fun, Fun” was inspired by its Hawthorne location.
By 1961 Foster sold the chain’s 360 locations.
There are now 62 remaining Fosters Freeze locations, but in 2015 a franchise investment group bought the company, modernized the brand and it says sales have increased every year since.
It also says the company plans to add new locations for the first time since 2006.
