User:Alaney2k/Honey Dew (soft drink)

Honey Dew was a Canadian orange-juice-based drink invented in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. First served in a roller-skating rink, its popularity during the era of prohibition saw the opening of a restaurant chain serving fast food and the drink. The drink later became sold as a frozen drink. The company was one of the companies in the Canadian Food Products subsidiary of Argus Corporation.

In 1916, the brothers Frederick and Donald Ryan, proprietors of a roller-skating rink named 'Pavlowa' in today's Masaryk-Cowan Community Recreation Centre, invented the Honey Dew drink to serve in the rink, which later became a dance hall. The drink was non-carbonated, based on orange juice and made to a secret recipe. The brothers formed Honey Dew Limited, which went public in 1928. The drink was served exclusively from its own branded restaurants, which varied from simple coffee shops to table service restaurants. During the summertime, the Honey Dew booths at Sunnyside Amusement Park and the Canadian National Exhibition were popular. For a time, Honey Dew had the exclusive right to sell hot dogs at the fair.

By the 1930s, the drink was so popular that Honey Dew restaurants were being opened across Canada. The company became a subsidiary of Canadian Orange Crush, a soft drink bottler. A share-holder in Honey Dew started a law-suit against the parent company, which was itself an off-shoot of the O'Keefe Brewing Company, which was in turn controlled by the Brewing Corporation of Canada. Brew Corp's president E. P. Taylor was served with a writ in the law-suit and attended a meeting of the board of directors of Canadian Orange Crush unannounced, seeking to divest the company. Due to the death of Orange Crush's president, Taylor instead became directly involved in the firm and became one of the three who knew the secret recipe of Honey Dew. Under Taylor's direction, the Honey Dew restaurants were revamped, some closed, some renovated. Honey Dew was spun off from Orange Crush and became the first company in the Canadian Food Products Limited conglomerate.

In 1958, Honey Dew became available as a drink for home consumption, distributed as a frozen concentrate for mixing at home. The Honey Dew frozen product continued on sale at grocery chains until the mid-1990s. Honey Dew expanded its selections to include several other flavours.

The Honey Dew Company Limited was sold by Canadian Food Products to CDRH Limited in 1970 for CA$2.1 million. The purchase included 22 restaurants and the wholesale business. In 1971, CDRH (later to become Foodex) reported "operating difficulties" in the Honey Dew unit, lowering its profit. The Honey Dew restaurant chain was closed by CDRH in 1972. Some of its locations were converted to snack bars and doughnut shops, while the closed locations auctioned off their fixtures. Some were converted to "Harvey Wallbanger" discount steak restaurants. Foodex sold off the Honey Dew products division to Federal Diversiplex in 1974.