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Best
Thing since Sliced Bread —
Part I
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“Hey,
leggo my Eggo!”
The name alone is a tip-off that the brand has been around a lot
longer than most people suspect--the corporate fad of putting
an -O at the end of a brain name peaked at a time that brought
us Jell-o, Grain-o, Zippo, Drano, Cheerio, Harpo, Groucho, Chico
and sometimes even Zeppo.
The name
came from the Dorsa brothers (not to be confused with the Dorsey
Brothers, whose musical harmony and personal disharmony was
legendary during the Big Band era). In Depression-era 1935,
Frank, Tony and Sam Dorsa had borrowed $35 to buy a waffle iron.
Their idea was to build a better batter, which they’d sell
premixed to restaurants. Their batter hit a homerun in early
marketing; all they needed was a name. A fourth brother, George,
piped up with a suggestion: It’s got a lot of eggs in it,
why not call it “Eggo”?
Eggos started
selling like hotcakes, and in 1937 the company went public.
In 1937 he brothers opened a huge factory in San Jose, pumping
out waffle batter for a breakfast-hungry nation.
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Bred
to Be Toasted
Eggos: From
Good to Waffle
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After
World War II, when America went crazy for giant-size refrigerators and
frozen foods, the brothers took a huge risk: They bet everything on the
idea that Americans would buy frozen waffles. Striking while the iron
was hot, they abandoned their batter business and switched over to ready-made
waffles. Within a year, they were pouring out 10,000 waffles an hour,
but still couldn’t keep up with the demand.
In 1968, the brothers sold out to Kellogg’s, which used the “Leggo
my Eggo” slogan to raise waffle-consciousness in a hungry nation.
Today, the brand is responsible for about 60% of the $500 million annual
frozen waffle market.
 Could
it be that we are entering a new golden-brown age of toaster foods? Gardenburgers
are those vegetarian patties that are actually good enough that even non-vegetarians
can get them down with relish (or at least condiments).
Lately, Gardenburger
packages have begun featuring -- along with the usual directions for
conventional oven, grill, microwave oven and toaster oven--instructions
for preparing them in toasters.
O brave new world,
O brave little toaster!
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