How it started
History
Originally called the "Red Front Candy Factory" William Wirt Lamme founded the business in 1878, and the shop opened its doors on the 800 block of Congress Ave. in Austin, Texas. In 1885, William lost the business while bettering in a poker game. William's son, David Turner Lamme Sr., came to Austin to pay the gambling debt ($800 then, or almost $27,000 today), and reclaim the business as his own. The store officially reopened on 10 July 1885, where it stayed for only a few years before being moved to another building on the 900 block of Congress Avenue.
In the beginning, Lammes specialized in selling ice cream and another dessert called Gem, made of whole milk and frozen fruit. Lammes continued serving ice cream and Gem until WWII, when production had to halt because of sugar rationing. Despite the availability of sugar after the war, ice cream never really caught on again. However, this was not disastrous for the business because in the meantime, they had been developing new treats for the people of Texas.
In 1892, after seven grueling years of recipe tasting, David Turner Lamme Sr. first produced the product that would continue to be their best seller even today: the famous "Texas Chewie" Pecan Praline. The praline is a simple dessert, consisting of pecans, corn syrup, sugar, butter, and salt. In the early days, Lammes produced all of their pralines with pecans growing from trees along the Colorado River, and today they still opt to use only Texas-grown pecans in their confectioneries. Initially, Lamme only cooked pralines by special order, waiting until he had enough orders to make a minimum batch of 25 pounds, which would eventually be shipped out through Lammes mail order division. However this did not last forever, and as Lammes grew in popularity, pralines finally became available to the public in the 1920s.
In 1957, Lammes moved locations again to Airport Blvd. in Austin and opened their dual factory and storefront there, where it is today. Since then, Lammes has stayed family owned and operated, passed down over 5 generations of candy makers, with its name changing to "Lammes Candies Since 1885, Inc." in 1965.
From Wikipedia’s article on Lammes Candy, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2