Established as a confectionery business in 1890, the first location of Blum’s was destroyed in San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake and fire. Founders Simon and Clemence Blum moved the business a year later to Polk Street and began to build a brand that was wildly popular for its ice creams, sundaes, sandwiches and especially its Coffee Crunch Cake, still made by home cooks to this day. (You can find the recipe on the internet)
Throughout the Depression of the 30s and the sugar rationing caused by WWII in the 40s, the business hung on, led by various family members, and began doing a roaring trade in mail order.
According to this late 1950s menu which celebrated the company's half centenary, Blum’s candies were ‘beautiful to the eye and delicious to the taste’ and its bakery delights ‘added charm to tens of thousands of California dinners, teas and parties.’
Blum’s outlets were also located in department stores like Neiman Marcus and I Magnin and in 1949 a Blum ‘confectaurant’ – a soda fountain, candy shop, restaurant and bakeshop – opened in San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel.
By the 1950s, there were four locations in San Francisco and other locations in Carmel, Pasadena, Sacramento and Westwood. The Beverly Hills location had a wood-paneled ‘Board Room’ designed purely for men, with a cocktail bar and a stock ticker to check on Wall Street business. A New York Blum’s opened in 1965.
No longer a family business, the various locations began to close in the 1970s and Blum’s stopped operating completely in the 1980s. The candy brand was acquired by a Kansas City business and sweets were sold until the 1990s.
Thanks to Jan Whitaker of restaurant-ingthroughhistory.com for some of this research.