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Fountaineers,Look at this past July! These summer days are piled high with sunshine and sing-song, so much so that the mercury in our thermometers is quite near to going crackly through its glassy girdles. We don’t mean to sound repetitive or braggy, but it must be reported once more that we have smashed sales records in the midst of the sweltering sunstorm. We would like to once again thank our returning patrons and those arriving anew! Please continue to return in regular intervals so that we can happify your palettes, nullify your thirst, and electrify your hearts.
In more militant news, we’d like to report that war was declared upon us. Barry “The Nosh Guy” Eichner, a fellow Philadelphian who runs the food blog “Food Rulez” (http://foodrulez.com/), challenged us to battle in his “Ice Cream Warz”. What were the terms of battle? “Make a banana split, serve it up in a classic style, and let us judge it on 4 categories, Toppings, Ice Cream, Presentation, Creativity.” The other warring ice cream empires? Bassetts Ice Cream, Scoop DeVille, and More Than Just Ice Cream. We prepared, and when Eichner stepped into our territory,we signaled our recruits, and waged song and dance upon he and his cohorts. The Berleys and select staff crooned away to a recording of Louie Prima’s 1949 song “Banana Split for My Baby” while we made a split on our menu sharing the same title. He was knocked out, and awarded us victors in the departments of “Best Presentation” and “Most Creativity.” His full write-up can be viewed here: http://foodrulez.com/2010/07/23/ice-cream-warz-winnerz/
In additional contest news, we would also like to report that we have been nominated for “Best Ice Cream Shop” on MyPhl17’s 2010 Philly HOT LIST. Please be sure to vote for us!
In even more award news, we have received, from Philadelphia Magazine, the 2010 award for “Best Ice Cream in Philadelphia.” This is just about as high an honor as you can get in this town, and we’re right thankful for it. We last received “Best of Philly” for “Best Date Spot” in 2009 and another Best of Philly ribbon for “Best Ice Cream” in 2006. Kudos to our staff for earning the honors! Without your earnest assistance, we would fail to transfix both critic and customer in our winning charm. As Philadelphia Magazine has observed and documented, we churn out the finest ice cream dainties, whir the best shakes, and provide the most ample swooning grounds. Pick up an issue to see for yourself!
Speaking of enchantment and romance, if you feel a desire to enhance both, then perhaps you should try stopping by Penn’s Landing in Old City in the near future. Beginning on August the 6th and continuing throughout September the 3rd, the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation will be sponsoring FREE FIREWORKS at Penn’s landing each Friday evening from 9:30pm. Witness, both overhead and in the reflected and wavering glimmer on the Delaware, an elegant fireworks display, as luminous flora blossom explosively.
On Saturday, July the 12th, we were invited to attend the”Ultimate Ice Cream Festival”, sponsored by WHYY, at Philadelpia’s historic Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia’s oldest vendor. Bassetts Ice Cream, Fishers Ice cream, and Bellisimo Gelato also participated in the festivity. We served root beer floats with blueberry ice cream. Our root beer keg was being chilled in a vat of ice water, but was time passed and the heat index raised, we soon lost all of our ice to mother nature’s equilibrium. The folks at Bassetts were kind enough to lend us some dry ice (solid state carbon dioxide, for all the science fans) which we placed into our keg’s cooling bath. Immediately, the bin billowed with a sprawling and spooky fog. A crowd gathered, pointing at the spilling mist. For hours afterward, we had a long line of marketers seeking a root beer float. The event also included fun and games, including a game we concocted to eat a scoop of ice cream without using your hands, with the only available utensil being a handmade candy cane. The event was a blast and we thank everybody involved
We made an architectural discovery regarding our new property at Shane Candies. We are in the process of giving the Shane storefront a face lift, and while doing so, we came across an astonishing find -- we peeled away some curved galvanized sheet metal on the bottommost edge of the storefront and found hiding behind it a series of over-a-century-old curved arch lights, hinged glass doors originally used to aerate and illuminate the cellar. They are flecked with a chipping lapis lazuli paint and are of a royal azure color. They have been untouched for a stack of decades, and we will restore them fully in the near future.
Lastly, we have some news in the flavor department. Our peach ice cream is now made with fresh in-season peaches from Green Meadow Farm. We recommend that you try it in a Peach Melba Parfait Sundae with our house-made raspberry puree. Additionally, we have re-introduced our “Crème de Lafayette” ice cream to once again commemorate Marquis de Lafayette, the French aristocrat, philosopher, and General in the American Revolutionary War. Our ice cream flavor is a rich french vanilla ice cream, swirled with a blueberry and raspberry purees, emulating the red-white-and-blue colors adapted by Lafayette to emblem his militia’s cockade when storming the French Bastille in 1790. An interesting anecdote -- while visiting Philadelphia, Lafayette is rumored to have visited Durrand’s Pharmacy at 6th and Market, which stood as an early form of soda fountain. We’d like to think that both Lafayette and Franklin would proclaim the ice cream “c'est très magnifique!”
Well, that’s about all this go around. We wish you continued gusto and glee this season.
-The Franklin Fountain
