The Bethesda Avenue corridor along Bethesda Row has some of the most expensive real estate in the region. It's hard to imagine it was once an industrial area with a freight railroad running through the middle of it. One of the most famous tenants of that industrial era was a local Frito franchisee called the Capitol Frito Company, located at 4860 Bethesda Avenue. The Apple Store stands on that spot today.
Capitol Frito Company was only the second franchisee outside of Texas allowed to manufacture and distribute Fritos and other chip products of the Dallas-based Frito Company. Can you guess who was the first franchisee? A little enterprise called H.W. Lay & Company, which later merged into the giant Frito-Lay company we know today.
Capitol Frito would have been making Fritos, Cheetos and Ruffles chips, all brands we still have today. But one of the newspaper ads shown here from December 1953 shows a new snack launching called Jupiter Potato Chips.
You could even write to Capitol Frito Company to get a free recipe booklet. It included delightful meals like the one you can still make today from the 1949 newspaper ad shown here, Baked Eggs with Fritos. Don't forget that Fritos are "delicious with creamed dishes." And remain "the perfect beverage companion."
5 comments:
Enjoyable article and the one from 2012 linked to! Please bring to more of these interesting historical articles to our attention!
Learning
I agree with 9:33. More articles like this!
Super cool! Would love to hear more about the Frito-Lay plant. This is one of the industries that I will have on my model railroad so I have been hoping to dig up some more info about what materials they consumed (vegetable oil, potatoes, corn meal, flour, etc.) and how their production developed over the years. Also, am curious when they came to town and when they left as well as the infrastructure. Really, the only photos I have are of when there was a fire there. Have never seen anything great of the back side of the building or any corollary structures (oil tanks, storage sheds, loading docks, etc.) they had. Would LOVE a nice shot of the back of the main building! We can dream, right? Thanks for sharing this! Adds some great context to the company and its history.
Good and interesting stuff. Thanks for posting.
Capital Frito on Bethesda Avenue had a fire on 10/6/1951. Firefighting enthusiaist have phots of the way the 4800 block looked that day here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=5426959910668361&set=p.5426959910668361&type=3 and here: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10225267947465989&set=gm.1690620484451484
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