Ed Irving sits inside of eegee’s No. 2 with a deluxe grinder sandwich–his favorite creation–and he is smiling.
Ed is the “e” that makes up part of the name of one of Tucson’s most recognizable homegrown restaurants, eegee’s; his business partner and co-founder, Bob Greenberg, is the “g.” It has been a marvelous ride, Ed can attest.
Ed and Bob had known each other since kindergarten. Years later, they returned to Tucson riding on an idea that changed the face of the local food scene.
Eegee’s, the restaurant chain, was born out of a truck. It was September 1971 when Ed and Bob took to the roads of Tucson to peddle their new product, an icy frozen lemonade.
“The construction workers really liked it,” Irving recalled. “(But) they’d say to us, ‘You know, we really love your slushie drink there, but don’t you have anything to eat?’ And the result is why we’re sitting in this restaurant.”
Working out of a tiny facility on the corner of Speedway Boulevard and Craycroft Road, they began producing sandwiches to go along with the frozen lemonades. The eegee’s truck was rolling through all parts of town, working on a daily schedule.
They also were given strong feedback on what they lacked.
“It was the kids that demanded the other flavors,” Irving says. “We drove around and the kids would ask, ‘What flavors do you got?’ And we’d go, ‘lemon’ and they’d say, ‘That’s it?'”
Soon came orange, much to the kids’ delight, and then strawberry, which today stands as the most popular eegee’s flavor. (Ironically, the original flavor, lemon, is now their slowest-seller.) Piña colada, which was their first “flavor of the month,” later replaced orange in the regular lineup.
The public loved the cool, mouth-chilling drinks–until it got chilly.
“Yeah, we got a pretty rude awakening that winter,” Irving chuckled.
What is an eegee’s drink? “It’s made just the way you make ice cream, except it doesn’t have any fat in it,” he says. The ingredients: sugar, water and, usually, natural fruit juices.
The eegee was actually a failed attempt at making an Italian ice. “What we originally tried to make, we didn’t know how to make. What we ended up with, we liked better,” Irving says.
Almost every eegee’s flavor includes juice, and more often than not, the recipe calls for orange. The base for black raspberry, the flavor of the month for August, is one of the many orange juice-based eegee’s served.
Yearly, 2,500 gallons worth of eegee’s go out to customers.
When eegee’s chose to fortify its frozen fruit drinks with more vitamins about four years ago, Irving worked with his doctor to formulate them in.
“He had me add thiamin (vitamin B1). I said, ‘What’s that good for?’ He said, ‘It’s good for hangovers’ … so we put that stuff in.”
Ingesting 12 ounces of eegee’s can contribute roughly 15 percent of the daily nutritional values of niacin, riboflavin and other vitamin B subsets, according to eegee’s. These electrolytes have made eegee’s become more like a frozen sports drink than anything else, Irving says.
“(An eegee’s) keeps you cool in the summertime when it’s 110 degrees out,” says Dominick Scala.
Now eegee’s senior assistant of operations, Scala has been with the eegee’s family since almost the very beginning, starting in 1974 as a 16-year-old high school kid.
Expanding was almost imminent, Irving says, as they had a hit on their hands. The first eegee’s restaurant opened spring 1972. Four were running by 1974, says Scala. A year later, eegee’s ended its truck operations, exclusively selling food in their restaurants.
As the community grew, eegee’s did, too. Their original commissary at Speedway and Craycroft became bigger as eegee’s bought up more rental spaces within the building–eventually getting all of them. In 1995, eegee’s moved to their new, bigger commissary on Ajo Way, where they produce all of the food found in the restaurants on a 24-hour cycle.
Eegee’s has baked its own bread since 1989, delivering the bread to its stores daily. Any leftover bread for the day is donated to the Casa Maria Soup Kitchen.
The company grew on a few key principles: efficiency, respect and quality. At eegee’s, everybody is taught how to make the sandwiches. This means that all of the employees–from the maintenance supervisors to the accountants–can go to a store if needed and produce food. That includes the people who run the business.
“I had a kid come up to me and say, ‘How long have you worked here?’ And I said, ’35 years,'” Irving recalled. Little did the kid know that the man making his sandwich was the president of a company that projected its sales numbers at $15 million for 2003.
Recognizing hard workers within the company is another element of respect that is given from the owners. Most of the people who hold managerial positions have risen from being on the eegee’s food-making crew.
In June, nearly two dozen employees received surprise bonuses for their hard work and loyalty. The 21 employees represented a combined 317 years of employment.
“A lot of why I stayed here (was) the owners. We know them; they know us. There are a lot of people still here from when I started,” says Jennifer Islam, who now manages the store that she first went to work at in 1990.
Eegee’s also gives back to Tucson. In the 13 years the restaurant has run the Coupon Card program, raising funds for a local charity every year, the program has raised nearly $700,000. This year, it raised $73,560 alone during the 30 days of June that it was run.
“We give back to our community (as) the community has given to us,” Islam says.
“Each year gets better and better,” Scala added.
Going from two guys who roamed the city with a truck to serve their lemon slush, to a chain of 20 restaurants in the Tucson area, did Ed Irving think it would grow to where eegee’s is now?
“Did we expect this? No. It just evolved.”
This article appears in Jul 28 – Aug 3, 2005.
It is very frustrating not to be able to find a list of ingredients for these drinks, not even on egees web site. This is not helpful to people with allergies and is not consistent with modern restaurant practices.
Way to go, EeGee’s! Tucson loves you guys!
I have to agree with the other person posting about the ingrediants of these drinks. Yesterday I wanted to purchase one at the Sonoita horse races when all around me were raving over them, however the people selling had no idea, although they were wonderful about trying to offer an answer. I have been searching on here since I returned home yesterday, even wrote an email on the Eegee’s website, and cannot find out if they are gluten free.
Responding to Featherkittie, Eegee’s IS GLUTEN FREE!!!!! My wife, who has Chrone’s disease and is gluten AND lactose intolerant, CAN and DOES have Eegee’s all the time.
All of Eegee’s slushies are free of gluten. Thought you would want to know.
Mixing strawberry and lemon is the best!!!!!!
Does the egees drink contain aspartame of any kind ? Does anyone have the answer.
If you read the article, it tells you what the drink is made of. Sugar, water, and natural fruit juices. That’s a pretty small list of ingredients.
I agree I would love to know how to make these wonderful refreshing drinks!!I grew up in Tucson and now live in Oregon and I would love to be able to make these myself since there is no way to get them here!!! Does anyone have any ideas??
Shana, actually, you can have Eegee’s shipped to you, if you truly want it badly enough. My daughter was dating someone from Arizona while she was a student at Utah State University. He sent her a big bucket of Eegee’s on Valentine’s Day! She kept it in our freezer for months, but we weren’t allowed to touch it…it was HERS 🙂
The ingredients are a secret for good reason. I don’t want an imitation Eegee. Yesterday I drove from Phoenix to Casa Grande (new Eegee store) to get a bucket of lemon. I often wish they would would start packaging Eegees for commercial sales in grocery stores. Oh yeah, and the bread too. Yum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They need to expand. People moving to California or as far as Florida miss Eegees
Richard, you will be happy to know there are now two places serving Eegees drinks in Phoenix … we don’t have to drive to Casa Grande any more!!! A Blimpie sub shop on Indian Bend and the GreatSteak at Tempe Marketplace both serve the standard trio and FOM Eegees!
Just discovered the Egees at Tempe Market Place. YEA!!!! Any plans for more locations in the East and West Valley?
I cut the hole in the side of the first truck and installed the vending window in it back in 1971!
I agree a need for expansion … I love San Antonio, Texas but I miss eegees in Tucson, Arizona . Any chance of expanding this way ?
Does eegees have any food dyes added?
New mini location samurai sams by metro center mall in Phoenix. Loovvveee me some eegee’s!
Watermelon pineapple splash -hands down the most amazing flavorful fantastic flavor of the month EVER!!
Many thanks to Ed & Bob. I started eating eegee’s in the early 1970s when the food truck stopped by my high school (Catalina) in the afternoons. Soon we found their ‘shack’ on the north side of Speedway, east of Tucson Blvd. The ‘shack’ turned into a bigger store & soon I happily found many eegee’s all over Tucson. The ‘shack’ store has since moved across Speedway, to the corner at Tucson Blvd.
We have had many family events where eegee’s was present, including a baby shower, & that baby is now 26 years of age. I moved away from Tucson about 30 years ago & often wish an eegee’s store was in Washington State. Whenever I come back to Tucson, I always head to eegee’s directly from the airport. Recently I spent a month in Tucson & probably had eegee’s food and/or drink 25 of 30 days. Not too much for me. My favorites are still what I used to get back in the 70s; a lemon or strawberry eegee, a couple hot pretzels with cheese, & an original grinder..hot.
I haven’t noticed too many changes in the products, which is a good thing. One exception I noticed last month was the original grinder has a different slice of meat, I think it is ham, & chopped up peppers instead of whole peppers, which was a little disapointing to this ‘old timer’. I used to bite the pepper & dump all the pepper juice onto the sandwich. Now the amount of peppers you get is not consistent, & I really didn’t like biting into peppers stems. Hey, after nearly 45 years of eating these yummy treats, you notice these things. Needless to say, eegee’s is my number one favorite restaurant of its kind. Again, many, many thanks to Ed and Bob.
Ed Irving was my next door neighbor back in the 1970’s. We still like eegee’s.
We have a new family favorite, champeegees. It’s strawberry Eegees mixed into champagne. YuM!
If you are a true Tucsonan you must like Eegees. It ought to be in all travel related documents!
They are not the same. There amount of meat in the grinders and tuna are pathic. I have to ask & pay for extra to get a decent sandwich. Stop buying food.
I would like to ask you to add some pictures of the mobile homes or cabanas that the original owners had built by Port-a-structures in the early 1970s. My father was a lead builder of the original Eegees when no one knew how to pronounce it correctly. My dad, Ollie Buck Tinsley, and our family, lived on the back of the lot & were the first people to see the trailers that my dad was so happy to be a part of building. He passed away several years ago. It would be great to have a picture out there of some of the work he did.
Thank You,
Lori Tinsley-Kiser
now serving Eegees slush at some Blimpies and Samari Sams in Phoenix. Please bring the ranch dressing too.
I have loved Eegee’s only since 1979 but it’s something I always enjoy when visiting Tucson. I found Eegee’s being sold at Spring Creek Store near Roosevelt Resort Park in the frozen foods freezer. Sure it was frozen solid but on a 106 degree day it was awesome. I like the fact that they have a training program for mentally disabled people that they hire & they also have a pretty good recycling & sustainability program. Nothing else in Tucson compares or even comes close to Eegee’s on a hot summer day.
Pepsi Cola sells them the syrup for their drinks, according to a Pepsi employee some years 5 ago. It’s definitely high fructose corn syrup unless they have changed recently.