Ice Cream

Ice cream needs to make a comeback - Ice cream parlors are places that sell ice cream and frozen yogurt to consumers. However - from a social context ice cream parlors are a meeting place to relax and enjoy. They were never meant to be restaurants but rather special shops that fit in sort of like Starbucks. The traditional ice cream parlor was a favorite social gathering spot for younger people who were under age for establishments serving alcoholic beverages. It also was a family friendly gathering place after junior high and high school spots events and just good places to hang out. Friendly's was one of the more fabulous meeting places with a wide variety of creamery specials. Farrells Ice Cream Parlors also came up with fantastic conglomerations of ice creams, sherbets, and pig out Sundays with wild names like Mount Rainier, Mount Tahoe, and Mount Adams specials. Other memorable conglomerations was a specialty called a "pig trough" that was brought out by a team of waiters and waitresses and you were watched as you consumed 4 quarts of various ice creams, strawberry, chocolate and whipped creams piled high in a mountain of flavor. If you ate one of these gigantic ice cream specials, the management would award you with a blue ribbon and announce to all their customers that you had successfully made a pig out of yourself plus you got another pig trough at no extra cost for you or your friend to consume. Other well known ice cream parlors are Baskin and Robbins, Ben and Jerry's, Cold Stone Creamery, Dairy Queen and Haagen-Dazs. Some of these departed from the pure ice cream and frozen yogurt model and sold frozen fruit juice slushies and sandwiches. Dairy Queen migrated into a fast food restaurant model competing eventually with MacDonald’s and Burger King.

Some of the coffee houses entered into the ice cream and yogurt business by offering coffee variations of frozen desserts. Some of my favorite Friendly's establishments became not so friendly and unfortunately not so clean. Today for premium ice cream I would definitely rate Haagen Daz as number one followed by Cold Stone Creamery. For soft ice cream and yogurt I would rate Dairy Queen as an American icon that still evokes sweet memories of dating that cheerleader or football star. For a place to go and do - ice cream parlors offer timeless sweetness and pleasure for all ages.