Food / Business & brands
Fred Sanders
· confectioner, founder of Sanders
German-born confectioner who opened his Detroit candy and soda shop in 1875 and founded Sanders, the brand of hot fudge, ice cream sodas and bumpy cake that became a Detroit institution.
- Birth name
- Frederick Sanders Schmidt
- Also known as
- Frederick Sanders Schmidt
- Detroit years
- 1875–
- Field
- Food, Business & brands
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Frederick Sanders Schmidt was born in Germany and grew up near Chicago, where he trained as a confectioner and ran a candy and soda-fountain business until the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed it. He moved to Detroit and, to set himself apart from his father's bakery business, traded under the name Sanders. On June 17, 1875, he opened his shop at Woodward and Gratiot avenues in downtown Detroit, first selling candy and then ice cream, sodas and baked goods. According to a long-told story, he popularized the ice cream soda in Detroit when he substituted ice cream for soured cream in 1876, though he probably did not invent it. The company became famous for its hot fudge topping and, from 1913, for the bumpy cake, chocolate cake striped with buttercream and covered in fudge. Sanders tea rooms were fixtures of Detroit life for generations, and the brand lives on today.
Highlights
- Opened his first Detroit shop on June 17, 1875
- Popularized the ice cream soda in Detroit
- Company introduced the bumpy cake in 1913
- Sanders hot fudge remains a Detroit signature
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Founded · 1875
First Sanders shop (Woodward and Gratiot)
Closed
Site of Fred Sanders's first Detroit candy and soda shop, opened June 17, 1875.