When did Tucson decide it loved Eegeeβs? Today, 50 years after its opening in 1971, the establishment is ubiquitous here. To love Eegeeβs is to love the city. But it couldnβt have always been this way. What happened between the storied beginnings of the food truck selling iced lemonades and the institution as we know it, with a city full of devotees and 12 upcoming locations in Phoenix? I took to the Arizona Daily Starβs archives to witness the development of Eegeeβs cult following.
1972
While Eegeeβs was perhaps first mentioned in print in 1972, the article does not yet report their origin story. The now-legendary tale is that in September 1971, two Rhode Islanders (and lifelong friends) Ed Irving and Bob Greenberg started a frozen lemonade truck.
Irving had attended the University of Arizona and realized there was an untapped market for a few east coast specialties, including the Italian ice. Or, as Tucsonans know it, the Eegee.
The first Eegeeβs was a truck, foundedΒ with $2,500 of investment capital (almost $17,000 in todayβs dollars). Their first year, they sold just $20,000 worth of product, mostly to school-aged kids. In under a decade, they increased that yield to over $1 million.
βWe were fortunate. We grew up with the town and we grew up with our customers,β Irving said in 1996.
1977
βTucson is a fast-food mecca,β the Arizona Daily Star wrote in 1977.Β
Six years after opening, Eegeeβs was on track to make $1 million in one year. The article reporting their success, from the Arizona Daily Citizen, noted their rapport with school-aged kids as a huge driver of their early loyalties. Their success in that demographic proved so competitive that a high school principal complained that their truck competed too well with the vending machines that paid for band uniforms.
1985
Nearly 40 years ago, Arizona Daily Star writer Robert Cauthorn declared a generational divide between the teens who ate (and often worked) at Eegeeβs and the teens who grew up in the '50s and '60s, before Eegeeβs was born, and instead frequented a drive-in called Johnnieβs.
The βsingularly wholesomeβ setting of Eegeeβs inspired allegiance, perhaps, because it was where a generation of boomers grew up and gained independence.
1996
Eegeeβs celebrated its 25th anniversary. The Arizona Daily Star wrote its first retrospective, which was full of tidbits:
Only two flavors ran once: Blue Hawaii, made with blue mint slush, chocolate chips and coconut shavings; and a slushy chocolate milk called Chocolate Sensation.
The βGβΒ from βEegeeβsβΒ comes not from co-founder Greenbergβs last name, but his high school nickname, βGrimes.β TheΒ βEβ comes from Irving's first name, Ed.
City Council was once going to ban styrofoam cups, but Eegeeβs intervened and convinced the City Council that styrofoam was environmentally friendly because it could be recycled into, for instance, furniture.
The first Eegeeβs was a truck, founded with $2,500 of investment capital.
By the numbers
- 60,000: number of servings of Eegeeβs catered to graduation parties in 1996
- 1: number of exclusive concessions deals Eegeeβs made in Tucson, for the now-closed Justinβs Water World
- 200: number of gallons per hour made by the Eegeeβs machine at their commissary in 1996
- 3: age of a toddler named Justin Trouard, whose first words were βmommy,β βdaddy,β and βEegeeβ
- $3,000,000: the conservative estimated loss encumbered by a failed expansion to Phoenix in the '80s
- $3,000,000: the amount donated by Eegeeβs to local charities over their 50 years
- $423,243: the amount of money an employee embezzledΒ from Eegeeβs in the 2000s
- $7,500: reward for tips regarding an employeeβs murder in the year 2000
- 1,000,000: number of gallons of Eegeeβs sold annually
2000
In a review for takeout, Arizona Daily Star writer Charlotte Lowe-Bailey rebrands the founders as Tucsonans, despite both Irving and Greenberg hailing from Rhode Island. Both the lede and headline of her article included the phrase βhometown boys.β
βWe donβt see Eegeeβs as a chain; itβs more like βhometown boys make good,ββ she wrote in 2000.
2001
In a survey of local elementary students, Eegeeβs was cited as three kidsβ favorite place to eat, with stiff competition from Peter Piper Pizza, Golden Corral, and βat home.β All of those kids are adults now β some of whom could have kids of their own, who might love Eegeeβs just as much as their parents did.
2002
Mascot Capβn Eegee was retired by ad reps in 2002, while Irving was on a motorcycle trip to California and Enron was in the headlines.
2004
The Arizona Daily Star profiled Super Dave, the Eegeeβs hawker at University of Arizona football games. By his own accounting, Super Dave had sold over $300,000 worth of Eegeeβs in his then-16 years at Eegeeβs.
2006
While Eegeeβs often seems to be more than its products themselves, a byline-free editorial in 2006 describes the core of what an Eegee is: βtangy, lemon slushy drinks that are the prefect (sic) combination of solid ice and liquid β you need both a straw and a spoon.β
Yet, like a good raspado, what is crucial is that the liquid is light enough that when you drink it, the liquid doesnβt separate to become syrupy at the bottom of the cup, leaving flavorless ice in geological layers on top. Instead the drink remains one coherent whole, refreshing all the way down.
While the editorial was in response to the sale of Eegeeβs to a family trust called CEO Foods, it scrapes at the theme of a changing guard in Tucson at the time: the closure of the Tack Room and Ye Olde Lantern restaurants marking a shifting tide in favor of βenergetic owners and chefs.β Eegeeβs is one βTucson Thing worth retaining.β
2008
Eegeeβs ranch fries won Calienteβs Food Fight title as favorite fry in Tucson.
2014
Eegeeβs foam cups were named one of 100 objects that define Tucson.
2020
Over three decades after their last attempt at expanding to Phoenix failed, Eegeeβs is trying again. This time, they are led by CEO Ron Petty rather than the original founders.
