Lunch at Rennebohm Drug Store

You can still pick up your prescription drugs at 676 State Street. But you can’t sit down at a Formica booth and order a milkshake, Bucky Burger, and grilled Danish to go along with them.

So as convenient as Walgreens may be, it will never fill the Rennie’s-sized hole in the hearts of UW alumni. Before being acquired by the national pharmacy chain in 1980, Rennebohm Drug Stores dotted seemingly every block of Madison, including the beloved campus location known as “The Pharm” on the corner of Lake and State.

Before being acquired by Walgreens in 1980, Rennebohm Drug Stores dotted seemingly every block of Madison. UW Archives

Owner Oscar Rennebohm 1911 was hailed as the textbook American success story. He grew up on a small farm in Leeds, Wisconsin, and purchased his first drugstore on University Avenue just a year after earning a pharmacy degree at the UW. The location largely served faculty and students. He turned that small-time operation into the largest chain in the city, with 15 stores by the 1950s and eventually double that (all under the Rexall franchise). Riding his reputation as a brilliant businessman, Rennebohm served as Wisconsin’s governor from 1947 to 1951.

Rennie’s, like many pharmacies of the era, doubled as a popular breakfast and lunch counter. In 1955, the soda fountains alone satisfied some 10,000 customers daily. The menu included a classic chili, ice cream concoctions, and freshy grilled foods — including the butter-dripped Danish dessert, the thought of which still makes long-ago customers drool.

In 1955, the Rennebohm soda fountains alone satisfied some 10,000 customers daily. UW Archives

The Rennebohm Drug Store name became so synonymous with the city that Walgreens kept it alongside its own for several years after the 1980 acquisition.

When the UW opened the Discovery Building on the spot of the first Rennebohm Drug Store in 2010, it paid tribute to the old pharmacy with a new Rennie’s Dairy Bar that served organic Babcock ice cream. But even that Rennie’s is no longer.

Still, the drugstore’s legacy lives on through the UW School of Pharmacy’s aptly named building: Rennebohm Hall. And the Oscar Rennebohm Foundation continues to support the university, including with an endowed scholarship for UW students — alas, sans lunch.