The Fast Food Chain John Mellencamp Made Famous Never Fully Recovered From Bankruptcy — But It's Still Out There

John Mellencamp referenced a fast-food chain in his paean to teenage lust, "Jack and Diane," that made it forever famous. The song's lyrics, "Suckin' on a chili dog outside the Tastee Freez," sparked speculation as to how the teens were eating that iconic chili dog but also renewed interest in the fading franchise. Mellencamp hails from Seymour, Indiana, but apparently, when he was growing up in the 1970s, no Tastee Freez existed in his hometown, and he was more likely inspired by a neighborhood snack bar. The 1982 hit song, though, hearkens back to when times were tough for Midwesterners, but Tastee Freez was a place where you could still find pleasure and cheap eats. At one time, Tastee Freez was Dairy Queen's fiercest competitor, but a disastrous decision by its owner forced the company into bankruptcy from which it never really recovered. 

Tastee Freez was the brainchild of Leo Maranz, a Chicago mechanical engineer who developed electrical refrigeration to maintain the perfect temperature for ice cream, particularly soft-serve ice cream. Maranz pitched his unique freezer to Dairy Queen, but when DQ passed on it, he opened his own business, the Electric Corporation of America. Maranz struggled financially during World War II, and he eventually pivoted to the toy business. But in 1950, he teamed up with former Dairy Queen employee Harry Axene and created the Tastee Freez corporation. They opened their first Tastee Freez in Chicago in 1951, and by offering franchise opportunities, in two years' time, they had approximately 500 locations worldwide.

Tastee Freez quickly became a favorite with budget-conscious families and, by the early 1960s, had grown to about 2,000 franchises. But then it all came crashing down in 1963. Maranz partnered with the Lyons restaurant chain to install Tastee Freez ice cream machines in trucks to sell frozen treats in England. The concept was a hit overseas, but it failed to catch on in the U.S., and the company fell into debt of $6 million, forcing it into bankruptcy. 

On top of the financial loss, the Securities and Exchange Commission banned trading of Tastee Freez stock while it was investigating possible stockholder insider trading. The company was forced to sell its unprofitable ice cream trucks as part of its Chapter 11 reorganization, and when Maranz's assistant, Herbert Molner, bought Tastee Freez, he closed its smaller stores and added hamburgers and hot dogs to the menu, which helped the company to recover, but not to the extent it had once been. Tastee Freez was sold in 1982 to the Denovo Corporation and then again in 2003 to the Galardi Group, owner of Wienerschnitzel, which incorporated Tastee Freez's soft serve into its menu offerings. Today, Tastee Freez has only four locations — in Alaska, Florida, Illinois, and North Dakota – and is no longer one of the best regional fast food chains. But "oh yeah, life goes on," sang Mellencamp, and so does Tastee Freez, if only in memory, "long after the thrill of livin' is gone."