“A Better Cup by Design” – a NYC tradition

Nutz4Nutz Candied Nut Cart NYC

When dievca first moved to NYC, she was mesmerized by the lovely smells emanating from the nut sellers carts. Every time she walks by, her mouth waters…. But after buying the nuts three times from various carts around the city to ill effect. dievca sniffs deeply and walks past.

In the 1920’s a Times Square nut seller switched gears with the market during the Depression and created a standard that still sells nationally.

A little nut/coffee/NYC History:
The chain, Chock full o’Nuts,  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.

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 supermarkets. Several years later baseball star Jackie Robinson 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.

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 the 1970s, the lunch counters gradually closed. After Black died, the company sold its remaining 17 restaurants to the restaurant company Riese Bros.

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).

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 his own money which he saved up from a newspaper route. The 23rd Street store closed in 2012.

To assure those with allergies to nuts, the company began adding the slogan “NO NUTS! 100 % Coffee” to its packaging in the 2000s.

The company also sells its single-serve K-Cup variation called “A Better Cup by Design”

How did this NYC history lesson come about? dievca has been enjoying the 100% Colombian version of Chock full o’Nuts. It’s a good, solid basic coffee and not too expensive from Wal-Mart (about $6).  Always a pleasure to find something simple for a good price.

Photo: dievca NYC 07/2019