OUR STORY | MILKSHAKE FACTORY

A LEGACY OF CHOCOLATIERS

From chocolates to milkshakes, our family brings inspirations to life with handcrafted quality. Our love of chocolate has been handed down from generations of chocolatiers that came before us. Since 1914, we have crafted premium chocolates using our heritage recipes and techniques. Today, we proudly continue this legacy. We hope our family traditions make your life sweeter.

1914

The Milkshake Factory® begins in 1914 as a small soda fountain and chocolate shop in Pittsburgh's Lawrenceville neighborhood.

Charlie and Orania immigrated from Greece and opened their first chocolate shop and soda fountain. At the time, a milkshake was a true treat for the whole family. Home refrigeration was a luxury few could afford, so to savor the taste of ice cream, let alone the thick chill of a handmade milkshake, was cause for an excursion to a soda fountain.

1950

The small store was thriving when the second generation joined the family business.

1973

As the third generation entered the family business, it came time to move from making chocolates in the back of the store, to opening a chocolate factory. The company's first factory was set up in a building previously used as a theatre in Trafford, Pennsylvania.

1980

The fourth generation of chocolatiers was born. They grew up in the chocolate factory, watching their parents make handcrafted truffles and caramels the same way generations did before them.

1995

The long-time chocolate shop's popularity continued to grow on the South Side. This shop, with its iconic red tin ceiling, would later become the first location of the Milkshake Factory®.

2003

More than a century from its soda fountain days, the Milkshake Factory® was coined as a result of one of the sibling's college projects.

The fourth generation took over the business and established a menu that blended high quality ingredients and imagination, which boasted a variety of inventive shake flavors.