Look up the USF site for information >>	DRAEGER’S HISTORY       Draeger’s was founded by Gustave Draeger, who immigrated to the United States at the young age of 14, arriving in New York from, Prussia (now part of Poland) in 1903. Gustave first worked as a farm hand in Montana. After moving to San Francisco, he took employment as a taxi-driver, delivery truck driver, and as a waiter. The industrious young man managed to start a small savings fund and with the help of the Bank of Italy (now the Bank of America), he opened his own business. The first store, Draeger’s Delicatessen, was located at the corner of 7th and Clement in the newly developed Richmond District of San Francisco. Through hard work and close attention to quality, the business prospered. When the five-year lease expired, he opened a larger store a few blocks away at 16th and Geary. Gustave’s business thrived leading him to expand and develop a full-service market. With the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, the quick-thinking Gustave was able to obtain the fist ever liquor license issued by San Francisco County. In the building next to his market, he immediately opened the first post-repeal liquor store. Gustave was soon able to build four liquor stores in the city. In 1943, he decided to retire, and sold all of his business holdings. Ever enterprising, Gustave invested a portion of the retired funds in a vacant property at 40th and Taravel in San Francisco’s Sunset District. With the Bay Area booming in the wartime economy, Gustave developed this prime property and in 1945, he built the largest market in the city. This was perhaps the first “super-market”. Gustave leased his newly built store to his sons Frank and Gustave Jr., who managed the business with much success. In 1949, they ventured south of “The City” into the rapidly developing town of San Mateo where they opened and jointly managed a second store. Six years later Frank bought out his brother and continued the expansion of the business by developing the Menlo Park store. In 1959, Frank accepted a very strong unsolicited offer for the San Francisco store, and in 1964 sold the San Mateo store because of its limited size. This enabled Frank to concentrate all of his energies into creating what is now one of the nation’s finest chains of food emporiums. As the third generation of Draeger’s entered into the business, expansion played imminent once again. In 1986, Draeger’s purchased the Whitecliff Market in Los Altos. The store was completely remodeled with a black and white theme and directional halogen lighting, staging a myriad of colors against shiny black tiles. Artful neon vignettes were created and placed over the store departments adding an exciting and almost whimsical quality to the store. The warm, friendly atmosphere in this the smallest of its three stores ties into a close community feeling unique to the town of Los Altos. After eight years of research and planning, the Menlo Park store was completely remodeled into what is without question one of the most beautiful grocery stores in the United States. The store features a soaring two-story atrium, defined by four oak Corinthian columns, standing over 25 feet tall, a beautiful black marble coffee bar, and thousands of feet of dramatic black ceramic tile. Although the square footage of the store doubled to 48,000 square feet, Draeger’s did not close for a single day during remodeling: a testament of expert planning and great patience on the part of the Draeger family, and loyal customers. This state-of-the-art food emporium enabled the Draeger’s to enhance their already famous culinary service by adding a sausage kitchen and smokehouse, fully equipped bakery, enlarged commercial deli kitchens, the most advanced wine storage facility, a full-service bistro restaurant, a culinary school, a complete housewares department and cookbook gallery, a Chinese take-out kitchen, and a party goods and bath department. Draeger’s grew very quickly, and after out-growing the first small store in San Mateo and building two larger Peninsula markets, the Draeger’s family returned to a modern bustling San Mateo and built their flagship store, an astonishing enterprise eight times the size of that first corner market! The amazing undertaking began in 1955 with the purchase of the Levy Bros. building, vacant for eleven years at Fourth and Ellsworth. The walls of the old building came down and the most glorious of food emporiums ever built rose up in their place. June 7, 1997, grand-opening day, was complete with all the fanfare of a show stopping parade of celebrities and local dignitaries.       Previous   I   Next
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