In 1956, a small candy and ice cream shop began selling a rich ice cream bar and word spread quickly. Neighborhood kids and adults alike crowded into the little store and bought a hand-dipped bar, savoring its rich creamy flavor and gladly paying a higher price. Leo Stefanos, a Greek immigrant who owns the store, originally created the bar for his children, who loved ice cream and were chasing trucks when they heard the familiar tinkling of bells announcing their presence on the street. He soon began offering them to his customers and they became a quiet sensation. Although they cost a bit more than standard Eskimo pie and good humor, people dropped their money long before premium ice cream made its debut. They were so good.

Thirty years later, the youngsters grew up and began distributing Dove Bars in supermarkets and pharmacies in the Chicago area, where they were welcomed along with other premium ice cream brands, whose time had come. No longer manufactured in the back of the original store, production became big business, with eight employees working the production line around the clock, and by 1986 the family had gone from producing 500 a day to the a staggering 72,000 bars a day and moved to a distribution plant in the Chicago suburbs. Concerned about maintaining quality, which had long been attributed to their father’s candy-making skills, the brothers finally agreed to go national when the Mars Candy Company picked them up wisely before anyone else could, and sales skyrocketed, surprising even the Mars family.

Over the years, the Dove brand has expanded to more ice cream flavors, chocolate toppings, and chocolate candies, but the Dove name (not to be confused with soap) will always be the symbol of rich and decadent ice cream. and one from the United States. favorite indulgences.

The Mars Company was a natural for Dove Bars. Opened in 1911 by Franklin Mars, who had learned the skills of dipping chocolate from his mother, they began creating popular sweets, beginning with the Snickers bar in 1930, followed by the Milky Way and Three Musketeers. Still a privately owned conglomerate of the Mars family, they have taken Dove bars to new heights without compromising on quality. But like many beloved products that started locally, nothing will replace those early days when neighborhood kids could bike to Dove Candies and shop for a Dove Bar.