| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | fast casual restaurant |
| Founded | 1950 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| Headquarters | 18880 W Bluemound Rd. Brookfield, WI 53045-6079 United States |
| Area served | Milwaukee metropolitan area |
| Key people | Elsa Kopp, founder (deceased) Karl Kopp (son), owner of Greenfield and Glendale stands Dick McGuire, owner of Brookfield stand |
| Products | frozen custard, jumbo burgers |
| Website | www.kopps.com |
Kopp's Frozen Custard is a restaurant chain located in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. It specializes in frozen custard and large "jumbo" hamburgers. Founded by Elsa Kopp in 1950, the restaurants continue to be heralded by local publications for their quality food.[1] They have locations in three Milwaukee suburbs.
Kopp's was the first custard stand to offer a special "flavor of the day" in addition to the more traditional chocolate and vanilla flavors.
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Elsa Kopp opened the first Kopp's stand at 6005 W. Appleton Ave., Milwaukee, Wisconsin (now the site of Robert's Frozen Custard) in 1950. A German immigrant with no prior business experience, Kopp started the stand after her husband, Karl Kopp, developed Parkinson's disease.
Some support in starting the business came from Leon Schneider, a custard machine repairman (later the founder of Leon's Frozen Custard), whom Elsa Kopp had met while working at a bakery.
The Kopp's frozen custard stand rose in popularity quickly during the 1950s and was soon seen as a Milwaukee staple.[2]
The Glendale location (5373 N. Port Washington Ave.) is on the site of the former Milky Way drive-in restaurant; the inspiration for the Happy Days diner, Arnold's Drive-In.
By 1960 the Kopp's stand was successful enough that Elsa felt comfortable experimenting with more exotic frozen custard recipes. Initially she mixed chocolate and vanilla, in the process committing what many in the early frozen custard community considered a heretical act. After this, Kopp's began offering increasingly diverse concoctions which became their well known "flavor of the day" menu option.[3]
On Thursdays, the locations offer a second flavor of the day, as a "Thursday's Child" option. Part of the profits from the sales of this flavor are contributed to UNICEF.
A visit from Vice President of the United States Joe Biden was widely reported in the media, after the vice president was rude to Glendale location manager Scott Borkin, saying "Why don't you say something nice instead of being a smartass all the time?" [4][5]