History[edit]
The chain was founded by William Black, who sold nuts in
Times Square to theater-goers. In 1926, he opened a store on Broadway and 43rd Street, eventually adding 17 more. When the Depression settled in, New Yorkers could no longer afford the luxury of shelled nuts, so Black converted his shops into
lunch counters, selling coffee and sandwiches.
[1]
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 five cent cup of coffee by watering it down.
[2] 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
supermarkets. Several years later baseball star
Jackie Robinson became the company's vice president and director of personnel, after retiring from the game.
[3][4] In 1961, Chock full o'Nuts introduced a brand of
instant coffee.
Within that decade 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.
In 1974, Chock full o'Nuts purchased
Rheingold Brewery.
[5] In the 1970s, the lunch counters gradually closed. After Black died, the company sold its remaining 17 restaurants to the restaurant company Riese Bros. In 1988, investor
Martin D. Gruss and the companies he controlled purchased a ten percent stake in the Chock full o'Nuts Corporation, saying he might seek control of the company.
[6] In 1993, Chock Express stores were introduced.
The
Sara Lee Corporation purchased Chock full o'Nuts for $238 million in 1999.
[7][8] 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).
[9] The youngest franchise owner in the years after the comeback was Corey Torjesen of Staten Island, New York, who opened a Chock full O'Nuts franchise, at the age of 19, with money he had earned from a newspaper route.
[10] The 23rd Street store closed in 2012. As of 2019, six stores branded as Chock full o'Nuts Cafés were in operation, including two locations in
Brooklyn, and one in each of
Elizabeth and
Fort Lee, New Jersey;
Middletown, New York; and Miami, Florida.
[11]
To assure those with
allergies to nuts, the company began adding the slogan "NO NUTS! 100% Coffee" to its packaging in the 2000s. (The coffee blend itself has never contained nuts.)
