White Stokes Mallo and Piping Gel

John Ruberry posted
[I found the source of the photo.]

(Streetview)
John's comment:

The former White Stokes factory at 3615 S. Jasper in the Central Manufacturing District. The candy company later moved to Lincolnwood and it seems to have dropped off the charts. Notice the ghost sign.

It is never good to see blue sky through the side windows. An advertisement for their genuine Mallo product brags about a "sunlighted" modern factory, but I imagine it still had a roof when it was in operation. (Another advertisement for genuine Mallo)

Birds-Eye View

In this birds-eye view, you can see where an industrial spur used to curve south off the track along the north side to serve the building's east side.

At the Lincolnwood site, they employed 40 full time employees. When I read an article about a company spending a quarter-billion dollars to build a plant that would employ 40 people, it makes you appreciate how important small businesses have become for the middle class. Unfortunately, they seem to have gone out of business because their listed domain name is now available for purchase and people could no longer buy their piping gel.

It seems they made the best piping gel in the world. The recipes were bought by LA Sweet Inc and they make the White Stokes products of Piping Gel, Whisto Jel, Syrups, Marshmallow, and Fondant. Unfortunately, the web address given, www.lasweetinc.com, gets a 451 error. The area code of the phone number 252-340-0390 is in North Carolina, so yet another company has given up on Illinois government.

The screen name of the last entry in the thread confirms my theory that piping gel is what people use to "draw" on cakes.

cakelady1962 Posted 16 Oct 2014 , 1:51am post #18 of 18
It's OFFICIAL....Agar piping gel is back and just as AWESOME as it was when White Stokes was producing it!!!! I have been working with "the new gel" for the last couple of weeks and it works GREAT!! I had  used it for over 30 years and had been very frustrated when White Stokes closed their doors. So, PLEASE spread the news....you can buy Agar piping gel from the company that is now making it at www.lasweetinc.com.

In this aerial photo of the Central Manufacturing District, I placed a red box around what I believe was the White Stokes Factory.

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP