Texans have been buying pecan pralines from the same Austin chocolate shop for over a century. That run is about to end.
Lammes Candies, a fixture of Austin’s confectionery scene since the late 1800s, has announced it is closing all of its retail locations after 141 years. Six stores have already shut or are shutting immediately, while the flagship store on Airport Boulevard will stay open temporarily until the remaining inventory is sold. The company’s website will also stay up, but only until what remains in stock has been bought up.
Lammes cited ‘unprecedented economic pressures and current market conditions’ on its homepage as the reason for shutting its stores.
The gamble that started it all
The story behind how Lammes managed to stay in the family sounds more like a saloon legend than a corporate origin myth. Founder William Wirt Lamme first set up a candy operation in Austin in 1878, naming it the Red Front Candy Factory.
Seven years into the venture, he ended up wagering the entire business at a poker game, which he lost. His son, David Turner Lamme Sr., dug up $800 to settle the debt and walked away with the keys. The shop has dated its founding to that day, July 10, 1885, ever since.
What was being sold in those early decades looked nothing like the modern lineup, though. Ice cream and a frozen fruit dessert kept the lights on at first. The pivot toward chocolate didn’t happen until 1965, deep into the next century. The one product that has run almost the entire length of the shop’s existence is the Texas Chewie Pecan Praline, in production since 1892.
Three Lamme siblings are running things at the moment. Pam, Bryan, and Lana took the reins in 2004, making them the fifth generation of the family at the helm of the company. They’re also, as it stands, the last.
Sources: Lammes Candies (FB), Today, Lammes, MySA