By Jan Norris
It’s always sundae at the local ice cream shops – especially in summer when melting residents look to ice cream for a chill thrill.
July is National Ice Cream Month, so parlors and shops around the country celebrate the frozen treat. Get in on $8 gourmet sundaes at the Ritz-Carlton throughout the month.
Ice cream has a long and sweet history in the U.S. – it was served in the colonies as early as 1700, when Maryland’s Governor Bladen dished it up for his guests. That was, of course, long before freezers; the treat was definitely a luxury for those who had ice available to make it.
New York City was the site of the just-born nation’s first ice cream parlor in 1776, serving what the Colonials dubbed “iced cream.”
The origin and namesake of the syrup-topped sundae is sketchy. Syrups were more popular than fudge back then, and most likely, it came from an Ithaca, N.Y. druggist who prepared a dish of vanilla ice cream with soda syrup on it and topped with a cherry for a local pastor – on a Sunday. An ad for a “cherry Sunday,” a “new ice cream specialty” selling for 10 cents, appeared around 1893. (Fast fact: More ice cream is sold on Sunday than any other day of the week.)
A good deal of evidence links some enterprising vendors at the St. Louis World’s Fair to the popularity of the ice cream cone. They used a waffle to wrap around the ice cream, making a portable, edible container. Cones were much smaller then – as were most people and their appetites.
Today, ice cream remains one of America’s top sweet treats. In a cup, cone, dish, or on a stick, it’s scooped up to the tune of around six gallons per person annually.
Favorite flavors remain vanilla and chocolate, but our local ice cream shops report some exotic and combo flavors that the lickers go for.
At the Ice Cream Club in Manalapan, it’s the “Garbage can sundae” that’s a hit – a vanilla ice cream base with seven different chocolate bars embedded in it ($5.75). moose tracks is one of the best selling cone flavors – it’s a vanilla ice cream studded with chocolate covered mini peanut butter cups and laced with fudge.
Ice cream lovers at the Village Homemade Ice Cream shop in Boynton Beach, butter pecan does the trick – or maybe cookies and cream (creamy vanilla studded with chocolate cookies floated with vanilla icing). Sundaes there are popular in those flavors as well – and start at $5.95.
For Kilwin’s in Lake Worth, it’s the toasted coconut that tops the chart. Coconut ice cream is crammed with flecks of chocolate-covered coconut shreds and then dipped in dark chocolate – think a frozen Mounds candy bar. Their sundaes come in hot fudge, caramel and marshmallow – your choice of ice cream ($5.06, tax included).
A banana twist cone gets attention at the fairly new Eye of the Storm Ice Cream Bar next door to Hurricane Alley in Boynton Beach. It’s a banana soft serve ice cream dipped in chocolate – you could get it in a cup with wet walnuts on top. The sundae of the moment there is a Cheesecake sundae: chocolate and vanilla ice cream, hot fudge or caramel sauce, with cheesecake pieces and white and chocolate chips ($6.50).
Serious “adult” ice creams are served at the Casino Dairy Bar in Lake Worth across from the pier. This handmade ice cream comes in the popular Malibu coconut rum flavor – a creamy coconut ice cream made with 100 percent Jamaican rum. Their most popular sundae is made from this flavor, too – with chocolate drizzled over top, and garnished with chocolate jimmies ($4).
Kids go for the “crazy cake” cone – vanilla ice cream with rainbow sprinkles and bright blue icing, with pieces of vanilla spongecake throughout.
Ben and Jerry’s, in Delray has a roster of popular flavors, but that old favorite, Cherry Garcia, still rocks the house. Their 50-50 sundae, made with 2 chocolate chip cookies and one scoop of any flavor ice cream with a bunch of gooey toppings is $5.95.
If You Go:
Ice Cream Club
278 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan
(561) 582-0778
Village Homemade Ice Cream
100 N.E. Sixth St., Suite 108, Boynton Beach
(561) 738-3121
Kilwin’s
512 Lake Ave., Lake Worth
(561) 493-9249
also at 402 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach
(561) 289-0808
Ben and Jerry’s
1155 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach
(561) 272-3112
Casino Dairy Bar
Four Ocean Blvd., Lake Worth
(561) 588-0233
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