The Scoop

April '11 SCOOP

2011-04-04T12:29:00.006-04:00

Springtime’s sweet swell saturates and suffuses successions of sprouting seedlings, shoots and shrubs. Above you and about you and even inside you an awesome allness awaits awareness. We wish wellness with whoops and whispers, we welcome with warmth.

Our Dearest Fountaineers,

What a thrill it is to see new life revive our surroundings! Fresh breath and light restore beings burrowed in slumber, and we wake along with them to present you with a wide assortment of new sweets! Banana Ice Cream has returned to our menu, and those who have acquainted themselves with its creamy luxuriousness have long been anticipating its re-introduction. The flavor is immersed with puréed bananas and incorporates our farm fresh dairy, its taste is exquisite. Another ice cream flavor that will be making its debut is “Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl”, a hardy flavor comprised of midnight cocoa powder and a homemade peanut butter sauce whirled throughout the ice cream in hardened sweeps of granulated peanuts. For those who favor the salty and the dark, this flavor may speak more adequately to your tastes. Another flavor to be launched will be our “Honeycomb Ice Cream”, its base is steeped with a honey essence which drones with a hiveful of flavor and sweetness. Throughout the ice cream, homemade honeycomb candy is crunchily studded. We will be featuring this flavor in our “Land of Milk and Honey” Ice Cream Soda, a delicious drink made with Levi’s Vanilla Cream Soda, fresh milk from Longacre’s dairy farm. This blissful beverage will anoint your tastebuds with richness and pleasure.

Eastertime is also right around the corner, so close that we can practically hear the padded paws of our vested rabbit friend thumping the city’s cobblestone. We will be decorating our store in pastels, and the Shane Confectionery display window will house a ceramic menagerie of associated hares carrying their chocolate-filled Easter baskets. Additionally, we will be making Shane’s world famous buttercream candies, this season in four exciting varieties! These include dark chocolate covered coconut cream, milk chocolate covered peanut butter cream, dark chocolate chocolate-vanilla buttercreams, and milk chocolate chocolate butter cream. The buttercream fondant is cooked on machinery dating back to the 1920s, and is composed of sugar cooked slowly while churned in water, vanilla extract, rich butter, some maize treacle, chocolate liquor, and vanilla extract. For three generations, Shane customers have lined the block to purchase these treats. We encourage you to purchase these wonders to keep with a sweet Philadelphia tradition.

It is impossible to transition from reportage of glad tidings to reportage of deep and personal loss without calling attention to the tonal shift. While our business persists on maintaining the mindset of living in the past, there are certain events that take place in our present times which we cannot ignore. The earthquake, tsunami, and ensuing chaos that have devastated Japan and its isles call for immediate and substantial action and relief. It is difficult to comprehend the full scale of the catastrophe, but, regardless, we feel obliged to assist those suffering in whatever way that we are able to. We have decided to donate 100% of the proceeds of our “Japanese Thirst-Ade” to the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia's Disaster Relief Fund. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those in need, to the afflicted and the rescue workers and caretakers. While the damage is expected by any measure to be longstanding and difficult, we hope and pray for the speediest possibly recovery.

We speak soberly now and with heavy hearts to report the unfortunate passing of Dan Nitz, a former employee of ours, who had worked as a soda jerk during the very first summer of our operation in 2005. Born on January the 25th of 1987, Dan was an artistic individual whose life was steeped in poetry, he held a unique outlook on life, and is said by former staff to have always had a “light in his eyes”. In 2005 Dan was diagnosed with acute Leukemia, and throughout five trying years he fought to bring beauty into the world with his artwork and deeds. To the misfortune of all, the disease progressed and took his life this past February. He is now in the company of eternal light. We ask that you please donate to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. You can learn more about Dan at www.DanNitz.com

It is with regret that we close our monthly correspondence with such sadness, but we ask that you please honor the memory of those who left us too soon with deeds of loving kindness and affection. May we all be reminded of life’s fragility, but also, its continuation. The revival of life in this Spring season seems emptier with these losses. But by affirming the singularities of life within ourselves through kind and brave action, we affirm also the continuum of life and its preciousness.
That Life and Love may always last,
The Franklin Fountain.

March '11 SCOOP

2011-03-04T16:32:00.006-05:00

Wrapping winds whirl Winter’s weight while we weary witnesses watch and wait for widespread white weather to withhold its wrath. Fortunately for Franklin Fountaineers, fair and favorable flushes of fortune found from fully fragrant flowered fields and forests fills and frills our Fountain’s frame, force, and faces, forthwith and forevermore.

St. Patrick’s day is coming up soon, and we are caught fully by the Celtic spirit! We will be decorating the store with charm and greenery, and we shall serve a variety of Irish-American sweets. “Irish Potatoes”, a historic Philadelphia confection, will be served once more at The Franklin Fountain. These treats have been made by the Shane family for generations, and we will be citing their early twentieth century recipe in concocting the treats in the old Shane candy kitchen. They are made by hand-shaping balls of shredded coconut fondant flavored with vanilla extract rolling them about in a coat of ground cinnamon and diced pignola nuts. They are as delicious as they are traditional, and we request that you purchase a box and give them a try.

We will also be featuring the “Irish Rose Ice Cream Soda”, a sweet and fragrant beverage named after the song “My Wild Irish Rose” written by stage actor Chancellor Olcott in 1899 for his production of “A Romance of Athlone” on Broadway. The drink is made with Schoenhofen Brewery’s “Green River” soda, a scoop of our creamy coconut ice cream, and a sprout of homemade whipped cream garnishing the garden of tastes. The drink is sumptuous and sugary, and quite enticing.

This year, we will be celebrating our five year anniversary of making our own homemade ice cream. We have been awarded multiple times by Philadelphia Magazine, featured on internationally broadcast television programs, and, most importantly, earned the respect of peers, friends, and returning clientele all because of the integrity and outstanding taste of our ice cream. We are quite proud for having stuck it out this long, and will continue to thrive for years to come with the help of your support and patronage.

On the evening of Tuesday, March the 2nd, the Berley Brothers participated in a panel and lecture on the history of confectioners in Philadelphia at the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent. Tony Walter, owner of Lore’s Chocolates, sat on the panel alongside the Berleys. The event was moderated by Christie Speer, an editor of The Philadelphia Magazine. Ryan and Eric Berley displayed a power point presentation on the intricate topic, highlighting Philadelphia confectioners such as Eliza Leslie, The Parkinson Family, H. O. Wilbur, and even Milton Hershey. They also documented and lectured on industrialization’s role in how candies were produced, packaged, and distributed, and why Philadelphia specifically was so crucial to the confectionery world. Veteran confectioner and food historian Jack Lees of Casani Candy also contributed a vast wealth of historical information to a transfixed audience.

The event was well received and well attended, and the Berleys got to show sneak-peek glimpses of the Shane Confectionery restoration, citing the tireless efforts of our workforce, including our site laborers: Creative Director Emily Malina, Pastry Chef Davina Soondrum, and Historian Jeffrey Heinbach. Afterwards, homemade Shane truffles and Irish Potatoes were served to those attended, as were Wilbur Buds donated by Wilbur’s Chocolates, and a delicious assortment of chocolates donated by Lore’s chocolates. A sweet way to end an evening!

We have three new ice cream flavors to debut this month. We couldn’t have made two of these flavors without the assistance and support of the wonderful Girl Scouts of America, founded by Juliette Gordon Low in 1912. We are using some of their annually sold cookies in our “Thin Mint Chip Ice Cream” (featuring crushed Thin Mint Cookies in white peppermint ice cream, a green creme de menthe swirl, and dark bittersweet Wilbur’s chocolate strewn throughout) and “Shortbread Ice Cream” (Madagascar and Mexican vanilla based flecked with crushed vanilla beans, and the 1922 original recipe for girl scout shortbread cookies.) We hope that when you taste these flavors, you also ingest the values of honesty, fairness, courage, compassion, character, sisterhood, confidence, and citizenship.

Stay tuned to forthcoming news announcements regarding our Easter Season Confectionery Line. We hope to serve homemade buttercream Easter Eggs, a variety of seasonal chocolates, and other goods to warm your heart and soul.

May new life revive you. May rainbows become present in your sky, and may you present your own rainbows to horizons to come.

The Franklin Fountain.

February '11 SCOOP

2011-01-26T15:57:00.016-05:00

Fellow Fountaineers, we’ve some news to drop that will swell your heart, wet your eyes, and lift your spirits -- Eric Berley, co-proprietor of The Franklin Fountain, has just gotten married! The blushing bride, Kiersten (who was gowned in a windy snowfall of lacy fabric) has worked at the Fountain for a few years now.

She and Eric fell into deep and true love amidst the bubbly hiss of our soda fountain, the soda syrup bottles arrayed in a rainbow’s spectrum and promise, the incessant ring of an antique cash register’s bell which awards wings to countless angels, and the constant hubbub of friends, family, and strangers who helped to nurture, tender, and witness their growing affection. The wedding occurred at the historic Roycroft Inn in East Aurora New York, founded by the American visionary Elbert Hubbard (Mr. Hubbard was a renegade and an eccentric who wore an expansive, ever-brimming hat atop his head, to don the “thinkery” beneath which was equally larger-than-life. He was a romantic and an individualist who held a sky-deep belief in handcrafting goods, and impregnating every produced artifact, printed page, spoken word, and placed footstep with as much meaning and self-awareness as possible.)

The Inn was constructed and furnished with the ideals, hard work, and sheer creative force of "the Roycroft, " a most impressive art colony in the history of the United States. The bride and groom selected this location because it mirrored like no where else {save for 116 Market Street} the values, idyllic nutrition, spiritual balance, and full-blossomed creativity that binds and sustains the entirety of themselves. Kiersten has had an interest in Arts and Crafts (a British-based movement which Hubbard brought to America with his own reinvented style) for some time now, and her family hails from nearby Buffalo. It is with first-hand testimony that I can relay to you that the whole thing transpired with through-and-through magic. A puffy blanket of snow enwrapped the village which thousands of artisans called home; and the inn housed dozens of guests who knew the bride and groom throughout their childhoods, scholastic careers, workplaces, or some combination therein.

The ceremony took place at a cozy church which was hardly distinguishable from the tumbling snow around it, and from which hung on the edges of its roof weeping icicles. Brother and fellow co-proprietor of “the Fountain” Ryan Berley was the best man, and read from the pulpit the selection of Psalm 19, issuing this appropriate bit of scripture: “The sun lives in the heavens where God placed it and moves across the skies as radiant as a bridegroom going to his wedding,” For indeed the sun was shining through the stained glass chapel windows and the bridegroom did look, if I might say, rather sunshiny, with the smile of his lifetime underneath his signature moustache.

Ryan went on to further supplicate, declaring that “God’s laws are pure, eternal, and just! They are more desirable than gold. They are sweeter than honey dripping from a honeycomb.” This line of scripture would be put to the test that evening during the reception when, for dessert, our “Rose Honeycomb” ice cream was served by the newlyweds who issued the ceremonial “first scoop” with a heart-shaped dipper. The purity and desirability of the Diety’s laws may get the blue-ribbon, but we’d like to think that that evening, our ice cream placed an honorable second.The pastor who married the two was an old college chum of Eric’s from William and Mary, and after their exchange of “I do”s, he enclosed the two soda jerks into their life of holy matrimony. We wish them all the love and happiness that our beating hearts can. For additional photographs, check out the amazing blog: http://amypphotos.blogspot.com/2011/01/kiersten-and-eric.html

Speaking of love, happiness, and hearts, we appear to be right smack-dab in the middle of the season for it! Yes, once again, St. Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and you can trust with certainty that we’re doing our honest best to bring about the holiday with romance and class. Expected to see underneath glass domes the finest hand-rolled French-styled truffles that your eyes could catch or your tastebuds know. We’ll also be bringing out chocolate-dipped strawberries, jars full of conversation hearts, sugared fruit jellies, Jordan almonds (in white, pink, and red.) and we will be featuring our staple “Broken Hearts Sundae” (for those of you with the real thing, we hope that you’re on the mend to a full recovery.)

Additionally, we will be featuring the “Love Potion Ice Cream Soda”, made with Nesbitt’s Strawberry Soda (The company began in 1927 in starry Los Angelos, and in the 40’s and 50’s was advertised by the then-unknown knock-out Marilyn Monroe) and a scoop of our homemade Strawberry Ice Cream (our strawberry ice cream is one of the most difficult flavors to master, we’ve created a sort of jam base to the ice cream in addition to studding it with farm-fresh strawberries. Its flavor is exquisite.) along the rim of the fluted glass will be placed a quartered strawberry, representing each blood-surged chamber of the heart that palpitates madly when entranced by the spell of a lover’s glare.

That’s about all there is this go-around, dear readers. We wish that Love, in all its sacred manifestations, we will be with you, and that you will be with it. For Love cannot perish, only transform. For what force constructs the blossom and its sweet fragrance from the cold and chaos? Love itself.

It is better to find Love in peril than peril in Love,
The Franklin Fountain

DECEMBER '10 SCOOP

2010-12-03T11:35:00.013-05:00

It is precisely at this time of year that the seam between the world of drab and kicked-around materiality and the world of sacral luminosity is worn clean-through. While the cold sharp of Winter pinches outwardness, the warmth of life retreats to inwardness. Beings clump together from the greatest of distances, be they family or strangers, to be near the radiance of each others’ warmth and, perhaps, to fan the collected embers of their innermost selves. And through this spontaneous kindliness, the world becomes magical. More notice is taken, if only for fleeting instances, to the largeness of small miracles-- the scent of burning firewood tumbling from chimney tops in out-blown ruffles, the wheeling night sky shimmering with wish-entrusted stars too plentiful to count, the seasonal rise of generosity towards sick children and lonesome elderly. It is with this suffused sense of magic and the transformation towards better things that we invite you, once more, to stop by The Franklin Fountain. For us, this season opens up a sort of spiritual valve within us to flood your life and your customer experience with the most cheer, inventiveness, and love that we have to offer.

While many burrow into hibernation’s slumber this time of year, our “Clear Toy Candies” are coming out of theirs. WHYY’s newly launched “Newsworks” online journalism site has cast a lovely piece on how we make our Clear Toy Candy, along with a Youtube’d photo-essay on the subject. Ryan Berley is interviewed in our wonderful new kitchen space at Shane Candies while our beloved pastry chef Davina Soondrum and her sensational assistant Hannah Taylor create another beautiful batch of sugar candies from century-old moulds.
You can find the piece here:
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/art-entertainment-sports/item/7544-17pccandy

Also on the Shane Candies site, Eric Berley was engaged in another historic to-do. It was at that very vicinity at 110 Market Street that Robert Aitken, a bookseller and printer who founded The Pennsylvania Magazine, printed America’s first English-language Bible in 1782. Eric, along with Bible historians, some clergymen, and former Philadelphia mayor Reverend W. Wilson Goode, assembled in the unveiled and restored Shane store front to read select passages from Aitken’s Bible to commemorate Public Bible Reading Day. The event was filmed by television stations and recorded on radio broadcasts, and for those assembled there that day and for many listening at home the commemoration was both significant and moving.

Fresh Cinnamon and Egg Nogg Ice Creams have returned for the season. We recommend them with one of our drool-producing homemade fruit pies. Additionally, we have brought back “Hot” Chocolate Ice cream, which is spiced with cinnamon, cayenne, and mombasa peppers. This flavor bears an Aztec heat, and is meant for only fireproof palates. Also, we have introduced our “Cardamom Chai” flavor, which is a collaborative effort-- the positively wonderful folks at Philadelphia’s “The Random Tea Room & Curiosity Shop” have graced us with a fine stock of their winning Chai Tea recipe, which we placed in a vanilla-based ice cream. The flavor is jungled with Assamese tea leaf grown by the banks of the Himalaya-bordered Brahmaputra river, crushed cardamom pods, ginger root, dried clove flower, crushed saffron crocus stigmas, and powdered cinnamon bark. This complicated but beautiful flavor is being used in our “Mt. Caramel” Sundae, which is an acclivous crag of Vanilla and Cardamom Chai ice cream drenched in a divine douse of homemade caramel sauce, spilling into an altar trench set with crumbled gingerbread, strewn with malt powder ash, and topped with a smoky tuft of whipped cream rising into the heavens. Test yourself and try one!

Well, that about does it for this go-around. We hope that you all have a lovely holiday season.
May you have light in darkness and warmth in cold.
May you find both in those around you and in your self.
The Franklin Fountain.

P.S.- We thought we’d leave you with a bit of sweetness:

THE CLEAR TOY CANDIES
The season permits with its cold frigid clasp
Candy creatures to make, their hides smooth as glass
Menageries prance in their crystalline structure
Translucent and crimson and emerald in color
While setting by windows they’ll bend dimming day
Their sinews catch lights, curling them in display
The reindeer and sailing ships, presidents and kings
The bicycling toads gather round now to sing:

“We are the CLEAR TOY CANDIES! We come but once a year!
We bring with us an elegance, a Christmas-season’s cheer!
We’re made of molten sugardust that faerie swarms deposit!
We’ve come to overtake your shelves with merriment and frolic!
In copper tubs our souls are stewed with vulcan fire’s breath
We’ll simmer down in ironware amid a chilly caress
We are the CLEAR TOY CANDIES! It’s our annual arrival!
An arctic sort of chilliness ensures us our survival.
In wrapping winds of wintertime our glassy sails will crescent
We sing with candy-slicken’d throats a tune that can’t be lessened!
We are the CLEAR CANDIES! At Christmastime we swoon!
Rejoicing with our sweetened hearts we sing of sugar dunes!
We sing of candy continents with soda water shores!
We sing of sugar blizzards and white marshmallow moors!
We sing ourselves a song until snoring we’re asleep
Forgetting what will finish us-- the hammer, tooth, or heat.

Autumn '10 SCOOP

2010-10-15T16:31:00.018-04:00

To Our Patrons, Ashine and Esteemed:

The slow soak of autumn shawls city block-trotters, petticoats pinwheel in westbound winds, writhing branches on forested mountainsides en-kindle with fiery colors. These signals remind us yearly of the scarcity of warmth as the earth wheels itself into a shadow’s submersion. As we plummet into night, the value of a snug embrace, a seething cider, and a toasty pie slice rises like a moon-tugged tide. Once more, The Franklin Fountain is glad to furnish you with a romantic clime and roasted treats.

Pumpkin Ice Cream hangs once more on our flavor list! And that can only mean one thing: “The Great Pumpkin Sundae” has returned! This legendary sundae is the reward for true believers -- anyone who tastes it is catapulted immediately into a drooling nirvana. It consists of pumpkin ice cream (itself spiced with ground cinnamon and nutmeg), salted pecan halves, a buttery golden caramel sauce, barleyfield malt powder, whipped cream, and cinnamon dust. This elusive sundae is a magnificent soul-slosher. Stop by and try to become infused in its trance! Specialty “Whoopee Pies” reappear again this season -- pumpkinbread discs sandwiching gingerbread buttercream frosting. Once lunchbox treats for farm laborers, these delicious pastries now know the whimsical calligraphy of our signature. We have also introduced, for the first time “Honeycomb Ice Cream” to our menu; a honey flavored ice cream hived with homemade honeycomb candy clusters. The flavorful hidden nests are brittle toffee-like bits with a caramelized honey taste. They’re certain to make you drone with pleasure.

Recently we have assisted our friends and neighbors “Design for Social Impact” with their “Posters for the People” gallery opening at Penn State Great Valley, which featured an array of Works Progress Administration commissioned poster art straight outta the New Deal. We donated our famed Pumpkin Ice Cream to their event, affectionately nicknaming the flavor “Pumpkin for the People.” The attendees were all treated to our autumnal treat.

“Pumpkins unite! You have nothing to lose but your vines!”- The Pumpkunist Manifesto
In case any Philadelphians haven’t noticed, The Phillies have been swinging their way to the pennant with rousing success. We are featuring a few items to commemorate their victories. First off, we are debuting our “No Hit Split”, doffing our ballcaps to Roy “Doc” Halladay’s historic no-hitter in the first game of this year’s playoffs. We will serve in a banana boat three baseball-sized vanilla scoops “x”’ed with three strawberry syrup “strike” signals-- garnished atop with peanuts and Cracker Jacks. We will also be giving away FREE red and white jimmies every time the Philles win a playoff game. Additionally, we will be selling “Champ Cherry Soda” in shop, a Philadelphia soft drink founded by hot dog tycoon Abe Levis on 6th Street in 1896. Originally titled “Champagne Cherry Soda”, the name changed in 1950 after the Phillies won the pennant that year. As legend has it, the soda is supposed to bring good luck to the fightin’ Phils. So drink one today to bring the boys luck!

Once again, news of our delicious goodies has been inked in magazine type and has wiggled across airwaves. We have been featured in the October 2010 issue of “Everyday with Rachel Ray”, on page 154. There, our “Caramel Apple Pie” shake is elegantly displayed. In their own words, “The Caramel Apple Pie Hot Milkshake is a slab of warm pie sinking into a vanilla shake, draped in hot caramel and served with a spoon and a straw for mixing, eating, slurping and licking clean.” The concoction was created in the autumn of ‘07 by Ryan Berley and soda jerk hall-of-famer Elliot Landes. We have also been featured once again on “The Food Network”, this time on the show “The Best Thing I Ever Ate”, this particular episode being entitled “The Best Thing I Ever Drank.” The episode featured Food Network personalities Duff Goldman and Marc Summers, who hailed Franklin Fountain drinks “The Egyptienne Egg Shake” and “The Chocolate Ice Cream Soda” to be their favorite drinks, respectively. The Egyptienne Egg Shake, a Heinbach-Berley creation, is an old-fashioned phosphate consisting of orange and rosewater syrups, a tincture of phosphoric acid, a beaten egg, sparkling water, ice, an Arabian date, and dried Blue Nile Lotus petal (when infused as a tea, the blue Nile lotus flower is said to produce a “feeling of joy that permeates the whole body, emanating from every cell".) The Chocolate Ice Cream Soda is a staple of The New York City soda fountain circuit. It is a chocolate soda, made with Fox’s “U-Bet” chocolate syrup, straight from Brookyln, and a scoop of our homemade chocolate syrup. The two Food Network personalities hemmed and hawed about which drink was superior, finally deciding that each drink held its worth based on their individual merits.

Meanwhile, on the Shane Candies front, we have been making significant headway in preparing the polished gem for its grand re-opening. We are currently restoring the building to its original lustre. Quite a bit of sprucing-up is underway, and while we don’t want to give away many details (although there are many beautiful ones), we can reveal that the interior palate of the shop will be inspired by the colors seen inside of Independence Hall. More is to come on this subject in the near future.

That’s about all for now, dear Fountaineers. Thank you once again for your patronage and attention.

Through chill and with warmth,

The Franklin Fountain

Mid-Summer SCOOP!

2010-08-03T19:17:00.008-04:00

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!

http://phillyhotlist.cityvoter.com/contests/best-of-the-philly-hot-list/4776/specialty-food-and-drink/ice-cream-shop

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

JUNE '10 SCOOP

2010-06-18T16:45:00.010-04:00

To The Citizenry of Confectionery,

You cocoa cravers, who hold in your hearts a drumming want for berry sauces, who ache for the salty dunes of rubbled almonds. You, who anticipate a kingdom of candy on whose sugared shores a sweet wind trills, keep this news close to your soul and offer it to the breezes: the Berley Brothers have bought Shane Candies! The official sale occurred rather quietly when Barry Shane, the eldest of the Shane clan, bequeathed his ninety-nine year old candy store over to the Berleys in The Franklin Fountain office. The Berley Brothers have promised to honor the Shane name and legacy by continuing the famed candy line for decades yet uncoursed. The news broke like a dawn, spilling out across newspaper headlines (including two articles penned by veteran Philadelphia Inquirer food columnist Rich Nichols) and throughout the web-work of food blogs in varied nooks of cyberspace. We can assure our readership, our clientele, and ourselves that we are humbled and honored to take upon the reigns of Shane Candies, which is one of the few remaining continuously run confectioneries not just in Philadelphia, but in our nation.

The entire staff of the Franklin Fountain has an anchor-deep interest in history. In fact, a spiritual resonance for our inherited histories is a pre-requisite for employment. To commemorate Shane Candies even in the smallest ways would affirm the deepest realms of our nature. So, without divulging too many secrets, we guarantee that we will revive Shane Candies to its brightest life, but more than this, to resuscitate fully a craft which has roots through centuries, and which was once integral to the economy and history of Philadelphia. We aim to re-open Shane Candies this coming Autumn season. In the meantime, please stop by The Franklin Fountain to pick up a card for a free candy gift to be presented to new and returning patrons! We also hope to publish a fuller account of the Shane Candy purchase, as well as their store history, in the coming months. Stay tuned for further updates!

Here at the Fountain, we have debuted a new ice cream flavor, "Mulberry", made from hand-prepared mulberries from Green Meadow Farm fixed into a preserve. The flavor is delicate and tickles neglected areas of the contemporary palette. Dr. Benjamin Franklin himself studied and planted mulberry trees in the 1750s and early 1760s when studying silkworms, imploring often that the nation grow a great multitude of trees so that a homegrown silk industry could develop in the colonies.

We have also made two specialty flavors for National Mechanics (the famed bar on 22 North 3rd Street), "Porter Ice Cream" and "Apricot Sorbet". Our Porter Ice Cream is made with "Flying Dog Brewery"'s "Gonzo Imperial Porter". It tastes smooth and hoppy, has an underlying richness, and is supplemented nicely by the creamy texture. "Apricot Sorbet" is another winner, being made from fresh apricots poached in sugar and Magic Hat #9. The flavor is fruity and more complicated, its ethereal sweetness plucks the tastebuds like lyre strings.

On June the 4th, our good friends at the gallery "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (on 116 North Third Street) held an exhibition called "The Roots of Root Beer" documenting the long history of a uniquely American beverage. The curators collaborated with Ryan Berley, borrowing and displaying many items from The Franklin Fountain's collection of ice cream & soda fountain artifacts. Ryan was there the opening night, lecturing about pharmacist Charles Hires who first commercially sold the drink. "Root" Beer Floats were also given away at the event opening, made with Art in the Age's signature drink, "Root" and our homemade vanilla ice cream. Please visit here for a recap on the event:

http://www.artintheage.com/blog/the-roots-of-root-beer-exhibition-re-cap/ VISIT BEFORE JUNE 27th!

That's all for now! Enjoy the warm weather, and please stop by the Fountain for a sweet drink, a warm smile, a cold ice cream, and a glad time!

-The Franklin Fountain

Spring SCOOP '10

2010-05-12T18:04:00.007-04:00

SPRING SCOOP

The rush of renewed spirit enters every sponge in nature and here at 1-1-6 Market Street, the kind cosmic boost is felt and appreciated! We have had, inside of the past few weeks, our most successful days in the history of our business. For many days moisture-vaulted clouds released their rains, but after the wetness subsided and the soils had a drink, frenzied onrushes of ice cream cravers bottlenecked at our door. We welcome the lines of tourists out our door, arrived from the curves of continents afar and the nearest nook in our neighborhood.

A few weeks ago we received in our shop two culinary celebrities: Mark Summers and "Duff" Goldman, of the Food Network's "Unwrapped" and "The Ace of Cakes". They arrived with cycloning passion to shoot a segment for "The Best Thing I Ever Ate", another Food Network staple. Each world-renowned foodie was there to endorse the best drink that they had ever drunk, and both were Franklin Fountain specialties. Evidently, Duff had been coming into the shop for years asking his favorite drink "The Egyptienne Egg Shake", and notified his producers of this personal fact. The Egyptienne Egg Shake, a Heinbach-Berley creation , was originally conceived to commemorate the King Tutankhamen exhibit at the Franklin Institute in 2007 and dually the discovery of the Pharoh's tomb by Howard Carter in 1921. The drink is a throwback to the raw egg drinks of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries - a forerunner for the protein shake. It consists of orange and rose syrups, an organic farm fresh beaten egg, tinctures of phosphoric acid and Angostura bitters, soda water, a bejeweling date garnish, and a sprinkling of dried Blue Nile lotus flower (known by the ancients for its euphoric lift.)

Duff was challanged by Mr. Summers, who felt that the best drink that he'd ever partaken of was an old fashioned Chocolate Ice Cream Soda, made with soda water, Brooklyn's own Fox's "U-Bet" chocolate syrup , and a scoop of our housemade chocolate ice cream floating on top. The drink is both straightforward and nostalgic. Which prevailed? You'll have to stay tuned for the broadcast. We'll let you know when it is due to premiere. In the meantime, enjoy both drinks and try to decide for yourselves.

Speaking of Food Network premiere dates, our segment on "Unwrapped" which we mentioned the shooting of in an earlier blogpost premiered on MAY 10th, 8:30 PM ET!

We have brought back "Banana" ice cream. We recommend it in the "Banana War" ice cream soda, a chocolate soda tinctured with vanilla and almond syrups, with a scoop of Banana ice cream floating on its surface. It commemorates the various "Banana Wars" conducted from 1898 until roughly 1925 between the United States and many Caribbean and South American Nations, fought, in part, over the exports of the bananas. The ice cream soda is a tropical, ripe treat, laced with an undertone of danger and intrigue.

On the subject of ice cream and banana wars, we have a separate anecdote to knot in here... The Berleys and other prominent staff members including our own Patrick O'Neill recently held an ice cream social onboard the USS Olympia, harbored at Penn's Landing (but not for much longer.) The Olympia was Commodore George Dewey's flagship cruiser at the Battle of Manilla Bay during the Spanish-American War in 1899 (The mother of all Banana Wars.) The crew and those on board all had a fantastic time and enjoyed our ice cream immensely.

For more news of flavor introductions and re-inclusions, we're announcing with pride that "Red Raspberry Sorbet" has made its triumphant return, and we have introduced "Orange-Pineapple Ice Cream" as a new flavor. Be sure to try these on your next stop by!

We hope that you've been enjoying the spring weather and the renewed life that the season brings.

"The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn"- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Blossom fully and forwardly, but once more, not without ice cream.

The Franklin Fountain.

March '10 SCOOP

2010-03-08T15:49:00.005-05:00

Bonnie Lads and Lasses,

The daylight lengthens. Life blooms from the earth! Why, green glistens at every bend! And what rainbows sling themselves across the skies to horseshoe the heavens? St. Patrick's Day marches near and we're well prepared this year with a fine selection of specials to top your morning.
To commemorate the Philadelphia Flower show the "Orange Honey Rose Blossom Ice Cream" will be featured again in our flowering "American Beauty" ice cream soda . Its fluted glass contains vanilla syrup, the taste of a compressed groveful of orange, an overtone of flourished rose, and the wet work of a needling network of honeybees. Aye, we've more: our "Irish Potato Ice Cream Cone", a scoop of our coconut ice cream covered in a powdery pillow of cinnamon. We shall also be selling "Irish Potatoes" singly, bits of coconut creme filling, a sprinkled coat of cinnamon, and studs on crushed nut potato "eyes". We have also ploughed through our Soda Fountain Dispenser's Formulary and amid its yellowing pages we found a shining gem: the recipe for the "Irish Lace Cream Shake". This marvel contains strawberry and pineapple syrups, sweet cream and angostura bitters, a firm scoop of vanilla ice cream, shaken briskly as a cocktail, served in a tall glass, and garnished with a scarlet cherry. It has the warm glow of sunset, bursts of fruity sweetness, and the delicate beauty of Irish lace itself.

This month "Green River" soda will flow like the Shannon. "Green River" dates back to the year 1919 when it was created during the Prohibition by the Schoenhofen Brewery in Chicago. Eddie "Banjo Eyes" Cantor, a Ziegfeld Follies entertainer, wrote a jingle for the fizzy green stuff. Have yourselves a glass & sip the endangered Americana.

Ah, well, we should note here that we've resumed our seven-day-a-week schedule here at the Franklin Fountain. We will be open on Sundays through Thursdays from noon til' 11p.m., and on Fridays and Saturdays from noon til' Midnight.

That's all we have for now, Fountaineers. As the poets of old Ireland said:

"May God grant you always...

A sunbeam to warm you

A moonbeam to charm you,

A sheltering angel, so nothing can harm you."

February '10 SCOOP

2010-02-12T21:15:00.003-05:00

FEBRUARY '10 SCOOP

To Our Dearest Readers, by Distance and with Closeness:

St. Valentine's Day approaches and love is in the air! Heck, the joint is practically cracklin' with the stuff! And such a suitable season to house it! Madly the heart thumps, chirring with systolic murmur, encaged in its ribbed nook. The Lover's pupils widen like dropped parachutes, their speech gnarls like tree roots. But what gesture or charm will betoken the target of their heaving heart's out-pour? Why not a snowy promenade to The Franklin Fountain? Think of it! The palpitating plunge of numberless snowflakes, the silken shine of the moon, lambent and large in a quilt of clouds. And in you'll swing through our oaken doors, wrapped in warmth and your courter's clench, where you will stand to be pampered and pepped. Mayn't we oversupply you with ammunition to enamor? Allow us to serenade you with this February's offerings -- a Darkened Chocolate Raspberry Truffle ice cream (it produces sure fire soul quivers, our homemade truffles are engorged with Chambord, a blessedly spirit-seethed raspberry wine), an arrowing slice of our Double Chocolate Truffle Cake, or a tall glass of our recalescent, blood-bubbling Red Hot Cinnamon Coca-Cola. Our narrow palace is the natural lover's swooning-ground, we were even given the honor of "Best First Date" destination by 2009's "Best of Philly" awards. So come, surround yourself and your love with the gentle slosh of romantic tunes effused from our 1920s Philco radio, let our endorphin-surging chocolate desserts assist the width of your stare. Our hand-and-foot service shall help to attune your hearts to the hallowed hum of the celestia aswirl a short sky away.

With Furnacing Hearts,

The Franklin Fountain

PS: We hold a font spot in our hearts for Fathers of Country Washington & Lincoln and will be open Presidents Day in celebration of their births. (12 noon until 11pm)

Winter '10 SCOOP

2010-01-31T18:30:00.019-05:00

Winter '10 SCOOP

Folks, we're presently clasped in a frigid and breezy Winter, but we've drifted past the tensed aperture of the solstice and brighter days are quite literally ahead. And the first rays angling through the stratosphere are those of a dawning decade. Here, within the curved pucker of space, time, and imagination at "The Franklin Fountain," the decade that emerges before us is that of the rollicking teens. We foresee, with tingles and towered tenacity, the fog-swaddled bays of events yet un-coursed, ruffled with wave crests tsunamic and small. We hope for our business to grow full and unbidden, and so long as we may flush your cheeks pink with rose and your hearts bright with light, this desire can congeal without trouble or ice.

In keeping with the tradition of the last three years, we have closed our shop for the week (Monday through Thursday) for the months of January and February. Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, however, are still stuffy with the action of good sales. During the week, we have been using our allotted time to make sweeping restorations to our building. Most notable is the repair work we've begun on our penny tile floor. Over the past eleven decades, the floor had grown grout-grimed. We have taken the substantial initiative to have the magnificent and historic thing chemically blasted, restoring its luster which hadn't been known to the eye of the trodden on-looker in over a century. We have also flossed every cranny and nook of the place to redeem its sheen with a variety of polishes and cares. It's a pure shimmer now, indeed.

We have also procured new bowls for our "Franklin Mint Sundae". The Sundae itself is one of our staple offerings: a mint-chocolate chipped gem positively reticulated in a corded latticework

of marshmallow glaze, Creme-de-Menthe and chocolate syrup. Now, it will be seated with methyl regality in a mint-leaf shaped glass slipper.

We have also begun to reach for tomorrow with a foot in yesterday, finding ourselves strangely situated in the world of today. What do I mean by all this confoundedness? Why, I mean to say that we've enacted "Facebook" and "Flickr" accounts, of course. Befriend us immediately in order receive the latest updates, deals, and giveaways! What's that? you say you're too old-fashioned for this newfangled flim-flam? Nonsense! Straighten your heads? What was Benjamin Franklin, if not America's first blogger? Indeed, he was the first self-publisher, as Poor Richard. An Almanacker and a Blogger are terms interchangeable, so we feel that we are carrying on a tradition of the great savant himself, and within his general residency.

Well, that's just about all we have for you this time. Stop by, in multiples if you must, and sip on one of our Philadelphia Magazine featured European drinking chocolates over amiable chatter. See the article here:

http://www.phillymag.com/articles/taste_cravings_hot_chocolate/

Ta-ta until next time, and good cheer!

...but before we leave you fully, we thought it might be fun to glance backward at the decade which nods in our wake here at the old "FF," "The 'Aughts, 1900-1910," for if you were to fold the past century shut clam-wise and compare its ends, you may notice that its events are not altogether dissimilar. Let's take a look:

The decade begins with sudden loss and quick transition, the death of two prominent heads of state, one British and one American, one anticipated and one not, respectively. I speak of Queen Victoria and President William McKinley. Victoria's queenship presided over six long and self-stamped decades, a planet-spanning empire rooted under her scepter. She passed in late January of 1901 of old age. Later in September of that same year, President McKinley was shot twice by Leon Frank Czolgosz, a Polish immigrant with a flare for fanaticism, with a handkerchief-wrapped .32 caliber Iver-Johnson revolver. President McKinley had begun to sprout a small empire of his own, and the young Czolgosz showed his dissatisfaction with twinned fire of bullets. The President died days afterward, to be succeeded by his Vice President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, a jovial New York cowboy with Coca-Cola spectacles and a walrus moustache. Roosevelt, with the romance of the West in his head, heart, and decree, developed upon his predecessors expansionist policies to the cheer of gunslingers and dismay of peace-wishers. His image was stonily stoic larger than life, little surprise this would later manifest itself literally on Mt. Rushmore decades afterward.
The world of communication netted itself into a complex web-work which forever altered the face and consciousness of the country and planet. Telegraphs, telephones, electric light, recorded sound, motion pictures, and the wireless transmission of information and energy, all infantile developments of the latter-half of the previous century, would branch fantastically onto the American scene in a wiry vascular arrangement of inter-connectivity. The pioneering works of men such as Samuel Morse, Alexander Graham Bell, Nikola Tesla, Michael Faraday, Thomas Edison, Guglielmo Marconi, James Clark Maxwell, and Albert Einstein (who published his theory of Special Relativity in 1905) profoundly perturbed how we view, interpret and utilize the world around us. "Movies" flickered onto makeshift screens in converted storefronts dubbed "Nickelodeons". Telegraphs sent text messages across land-masses and lapping oceans. Invisible scintilla carried radiated messages and song in what would come to be known as "radio", thanks to the competing works of Tesla and Marconi. Music and speeches were able to become locked like fossils in solidified discs or cylinders of wax, thanks to Edison's phonograph. Within this decade man took wing to the skies with the first engined and sustained aeroplane flight by the Wright Brothers in 1903-- the frontiers of the human playground then knew one less fence. Distances seemed to shrink and family nuclei dissolve as automobiles provided rickety propulsion from the farmhouse, anchored in the wheatfield, towards the skyscraper-prickled cities in the distance. Buildings grew tall and slums grew wide. "Jazz" music took shape, a novel and bawdy sound of seeming incongruence to the trembling opera and bobbing waltzes we inherited from Western Europe. This stuff was new. "Ragtime" music, spearheaded by Scott Joplin, infused slave-derived West-African syncopation and percussive style, marching band upswing, and late Romantic luster. Concurrently, "Tin-Pan Alley," a street in the Flatiron District of New York City, churned out jazzy sheet music and vaudeville acts with assembly line regularity. Composed of the ethnic poor of the Bowery, competition was fierce and frequent to produce a laugh and a tune, in ever-innovative ways. Irving Berlin, a poor Eastern-European Jew living in Manhattan's Lower East Side, emerged as a stellar American songwriter. Creative fields sprawled and lashed, suffusing elements of everyday life, in art forms both high and low. The "Cubist" movement reared itself in 1907 when Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque arranged figures with an almost crystalline planarity and vibrant color schemes onto canvas, undoing centuries-long attitudes on the rules of perspective. The "Art Nouveau" movement was also strongly afoot, A Parisian- based movement promoting color and curve, which later saw its influence impressed on common architecture and utility design. The movement had its larger opening to the public at the 50 million person attended "Exposition Universelle" in Paris in 1900. Poster Art and Comic books began to make innovate use of this bright new loopy look.
For all the novel arts and invention, there was also war and economic panic. In 1907 there was an uproarious crash of the stock market, leading to a creaky currency and unsteady banks. This effect rippled for years after-wards (and, arguably, still is), eventually leading to the foundation of the Federal Reserve Bank in 1913 and a graduated income tax system. The banking system was turned on its head, as was the system for the issuance of paper and coin currency. The breakout of War was seen across the globe: The Boxer Rebellion in Peking in 1900, skirmishes with Colombia over Panama between 1901-1902, interaction in Honduras in 1903, Marine involvement in the Dominican Republic in 1903, forces sent to protect the American Consulate in Beirut in 1903, the Russo-Japanese War broke between 1904-05, and a small involvement in Cuba between 1906 and 1907. William Randolph Hearst fanned the jingoistic flames with his yellow press, and detractors formed the "American Anti-Imperialist League", which included such men as Grover Cleveland, Andrew Carnegie, Mark Twain, and Edgar Lee Masters.
In summary, the opening decade of the past century was every bit as tense, awe-inspiring, creatively bountiful, stuffy with pop-culture, and tumbling with tragedy as the opening decade of this century. We hope this gives you a few new angles of perspective on our cultural inheritance. Let's do our very best to make this next decade as bountiful with beauty as we can, with the maximum minimization of harm. As Mark Twain said, regarding hope : "It is like any other agriculture: if you hoe it and harrow it and water it enough, you can make three blades of it grow where none grew before. If you've got nothing to plant, the process is slow and difficult, but if you've got a seed of some kind or other--any kind will answer--you get along a good deal faster." (Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes)

December SCOOP!

2009-12-17T22:34:00.010-05:00

Well, Franklin Fountain fans, we've set full sail for December in festive style; the shop has been gussied with yuletide decor. Our clear toy candy is displayed delicately in the window, and beside it sits our diminutive Christmas tree, wreathed in beaded strings of sugared cranberries, trails of popcorn, and be-decked with candles and holiday ornaments. Holiday pies are being churned out in a fruited continuum by Davina (our pastry chef) and enjoyed by a diverse, globe-girdling clientele. Visitors from France, Germany, South Africa, Turkey, Israel, and Japan have all praised
the deliciousness of our baked goods and special ice creams.

Have you found yourselves in a nervous scramble to find the perfect gifts for your loved ones this holiday season? You needn't look any further than our lamp lit display shelves, filled with our colorful crystalline clear toy candies, ready to be boxed in a nest of straw-stuffing (to insure the safety of an unbroken transport). We have an array of smaller candies as well, which cannot be excelled as stocking-fillers. Towards the back of our shop you will also find an antique pharmacy cabinet full of tentative gifts -- silken bow-ties from Vermont, a collection of dozens of novelty sodas we scoured the continent to shelve, some fragrant toiletries like Florida Water or J.R. Liggetts Bar Shampoos, or perhaps one of our many books pertaining to confectionery and soda fountain history. Also, we have for sale spritely "Springerle Cookies, soft flavored cookies which are minted (the verb, not the adjective) from hand-carved molds in a tradition dating back centuries into Teutonic yore. Springerle Cookies have been a Pennsylvania-German tradition since 1710 when they were introduced into Lancaster County by field-threshing settlers. Today, they are produced intricately to honor heritage and to "celebrate daily life" by "The Springerle House" in Strasburg, Pennsylvania. Be sure to pick some up to gift, hold, or taste!

The Food Network has stopped in this week in a two-fold effort to provide a setting for Marc Summers to host the acclaimed "Unwrapped" show and for "American Classics" to document once more our Clear Toy Candy making process.
It was more than a delight to work
with Mark and his amiable crew.
The shoot transgressed smoothly and a few customers even got to sit in as extras! The show should debut sometime in early 2010, we'll be sure to keep everyone posted as to when it will be broadcast. Also, on more "pressing" note, get a glimpse of the clear toy candy making process and tune in to the 10 Show on Tuesday morning, December 22nd at 10am to watch the Berley Brothers at work on their glass confectionery.

May everyone enjoy the holiday season with a glad heart! We can assure our readership that the goods and the cheer which we carry can supplement any holiday get-together, and that our novel candied handiworks provide endearingly-expressed sentiments to those you most care for. We thank you all again for your enthused support, and hope in earnest that you call again soon. Be well and do well! Be merry, loving, and wise! But don't be without our treats and wares!

Holiday Hours:
Closed: Christmas Eve & Christmas Day.
OPEN: Friday & Saturday 11am - midnight
Sunday 11am - 11pm
Monday - Thursday 12 noon - 11pm

November SCOOP

2009-11-25T09:59:00.020-05:00

It's November here at The Franklin Fountain, and its old familiarities have returned to us once more-- the gentle tumble of amber-rusted tree leaves, the trickled climb of chimney smoke into advancing sunsets, the increasingly bundled huddles of street traffic -- the combined onset of these elements usually quiets our shop and our pace significantly, but this season we have received several unanticipated blessings. First and foremost, we have had an incredible influx of business due to the premiere of "Man Vs. Food" on The Travel Channel. For those out of the know, the show is hosted and ring-led by the larger-than-life Adam Richman, who, on a per-episode basis, is challenged with feats of the digestively-impossible. This specific episode dealt with the finest and the largest Philadelphia cuisine. Adam stopped at the Reading Terminal Market, engulfed a gargantuan cheese steak at Tony Luke's, and, to top it all off, proudly traipsed through The Fountain's doors to ingurgitate a few of our most mammoth concoctions, (namely the Mount Vesuvius, The Franklin Mint, and The Lightning Rod sundaes.)

Amidst the sprouting tufts of whipped cream, the frantic blizzard of brownies, the avalanching slabs of ice cream, and the out-spewed ooze of molten fudge, Richman remained. He has earned our applause and respect for withstanding the onslaught. With that said, the global broadcast of the show has brought us an unforeseen wave of new customers from all across the country, and, ostensibly, the planet. We have been jolted with a positive pandemonium; never before have we had to assemble so many Mount Vesuviae or Franklin Mints! It's been unspeakably wonderful to welcome and delight a fresh new crop of locals and travelers into the shop. For more information on "Man vs. Food" and the hijinks of Richman, please peruse this web address: http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Man_v_Food

In other news, our "Hot Menu" has debuted to an enthusiastic public for yet another chilly season. With that, as prophesied, "The Great Pumpkin Sundae" has returned to the delight of our doted true-believers. The "Hot Sodas" are fizzing a happy warmth, and our novel "Hot Milkshakes" continue to bewilder and enthrall. The niceness of scent of flame-consumed homemade marshmallows in a graham cracker pinch cannot be understated, and that's exactly what you'll get with our "Toasted Marshmallow Malted". Our pastry chef, Davina Soondrum, has graced us again with her scratch-made pies (Apple, Peach Praline, Mixed Berry and Shoo-Fly) which can be spun warm into our milkshakes.

Jennifer McGlinn, author and food historian, will be conducting an in-shop book signing here at the Fountain on Saturday November 28th from Noon until 5pm. To supplement her autography, gingerbread samples will be given to the arrived public. This would be the opportune time to announce the latest addition to the Franklin Fountain flavor list, "Gingerbread Ice Cream." Our Gingerbread Ice Cream recipe is derived from McGlinn's scholarship into historic gingerbread cookery receipts. Speaking of note-worthy Gingerbreadists, we would also like to take this time to highlight the overlooked profile of one Christopher Ludwick, whom was legendary in his time for baking gingerbread out of Letitia Court. (now Letitia Street, running parallel to The Franklin Fountain) Ludwick produced such high-quality gingerbread and in such fantastic quantities that Washington himself awarded Ludwick the status of Baker-General of the Continental Army during the War for Independence. By his toil and industry Ludwick prospered greatly, and contributed his proceeds to the revolutionary cause. We'd like to think that Ludwick would smile at the fact that Gingerbread Ice Cream is being produced in the very same Court he was baking in over two hundred years ago.

Another forgotten ice cream flavor that has made the holiday list is our new Chestnut Ice Cream (editor's note: It's astonishing. I'm not kidding.) By the account of all those who have tried it, it is rooted in some celestial plane. We sourced our chestnuts earlier in the year from Delmarvelous Chestnuts (www.buychestnuts.com), a couple of dedicated Delawarians resurrecting the nuts of the tree which, for over a century, has neared extinction (the unforgiving "Chestnut Blight" beggining in the 1860s which practically wiped the desiduous delites out of existence.) After decades of hybridization with Asiatic chestnut trees, these chestnuts are bona-fide, nearly 100% American Chestnut.) For our ice cream, we have spent hours peeling, boiling, and, candying the wonder-seeds to acquire an ice cream that, when tasted, elicits a sweet transcendence.

As you may have anticipated, our "CLEAR TOY CANDIES", marveled-worldwide, will be produced once more following the Thanksgiving holiday. These beauteous figures are handcrafted with fire, grace, and tedium out of our basement workspace, being forged in a variance of over two-hundred and fifty cast iron candy molds. Their preparation is careful and laborious, our team of candymakers must gather in a space most bereft of heat and humidity to smelt sugar in antique copperware heated over kettle flame, then pour the scalding glow into the open molds. The candies can be tinted scarlet, emerald, or they may sparkle with aurulence in their natural hue. We encourage the lot of you to peer into our shop window on a wintry day where a full menagerie of these beauts will be exhibited, whilst they careen and refract the dimming day with glassy elegance. HOWEVER, if you

would like to be witness to their stellar debut (and why shouldn't you?), we invite and impel you to arrive at the Omni Hotel this November 28th promptly at 11 A.M., where we hope to furnish them amongst a gathered chorus of carolers, a ceremoniously-lit Christmas tree, and all the dazzling paraphernalia of the season! But more than this, we've good word that jolly old SAINT NICK will be arriving triumphantly to officiate the celebration. Do attend if you are able!

(photograph courtesy of Ruth Savitz)

Gentle readers, we thank you for keeping in touch with us here at "The Franklin Fountain", and for your continued support and patronage. With due sincerity we wish you the best. May you all dwell in peace of mind, warmth of heart, and safety of soul this holiday season. And to be sure, with your allowance, it is with no small aim that we hope to contribute to your happiness with our cool sweets and salving spirits.

In warm regards with cool desserts,

The Franklin Fountain

September 09 SCOOP

2009-09-21T15:00:00.008-04:00

September 09 SCOOP

5 YEARS & 5 CENT SODAS!

On Sunday September 20th, The Franklin Fountain celebrated its 5-year anniversary.
Just 60 short months ago, the Berley family took the plunge into the unknown depths of the soda fountain business. Learning on the fly, with wonderfully supportive friends & family, some honed advice from deceased experts via musty soda manuals and old-fashioned elbow grease, the Berley Bros. scooped their way towards systems, stability and then success. It was a rocking boat, to be sure, those naive early years. Someone told us early on that opening a business was like having a baby…a crying, needy baby that keeps you up late at night, constant feeding, incredible growth spurts and wonderful loving joy that overpowers all. As the business grew and continues to grow, it seems altogether fitting to celebrate the occasion with a party. So on Sunday afternoon, the fountain and customers enjoyed Dixieland jazz music, magic and memories from past staff and plenty of fresh Franklin Fountain Ice Cream! We even rolled back the prices to 1909 on fountain sodas for 5 WHOLE CENTS! (honest)

POPULAR PRESS

Over the summer, we were graced with the gustatory presence of Adam Richman of Man VS. Food, a popular television program on the Travel Channel. On Wednesday September 23rd at 10pm, Adam will be visiting The Franklin Fountain on screen, eating his dessert first (a Mt. Vesuvius sundae, amongst other things) and then traveling to Tony Luke’s for his 5-LB. Cheesesteak Challenge. This will be entertaining for sure! For more information on this boy from Brooklyn and his show see: http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Man_v_Food

PEARS & PUMPKINS ARRIVE

Pumpkin Ice Cream begins this first week of autumn, for all devotees. We’re also experimenting with new seasonal sorbets, and this Fall are featuring a Poached Pear Sorbet. Davina hot stewed the local Barlett pears in spiced white wine for the base, which was then frozen at the Ice Cream Dept. Stay in touch and remember to visit us for the latest SCOOP!

HATS CLEANED & BLOCKED

A few weeks ago, brother Ryan found a soft felt Wanamaker’s Homburg at local vintage clothing shop Sazz Vintage (www.sazzvintage.com). Slightly out of shape and a bit dirty, he searched for a venue in Philadelphia to have it cleaned & blocked. Realizing Lit Brothers up the street only provided trimming, he found a gentleman in Portland, Oregon who restores vintage headwear. One new stitched sweatband later, the Homburg came back as good as 1930s new. We’ve made an arrangement with this haberdasher to service hats for our customers. Just give us a ring or ask your soda jerk in person.

SCHOOL’S IN

For the month of September, we will be featuring “The Schoolhouse Sundae” which consists of a tart apple cobbler, warmed, with a scoop of our Vanilla Bean ice cream and coated with caramel like a candy apple. Profits from this sundae benefit the Global Playground initiative with schools in developing countries like Cambodia and Thailand and Tree House Books, a bookstore in North Philadelphia, committed to growing a life with books and education. So far, report cards on this sundae are all AAAs (for apple, apple, apple, of course)!

SUMMER '09 SCOOP

2009-07-10T13:53:00.012-04:00

Summer is officially here, as we have just rung in the Liberty bell with the 4th of July…and that’s no crack! This past weekend witnessed record crowds visit Market Street for the parade as it marched from Independence Hall to Front Street, right past the Franklin Fountain. We had a bird’s eye view for sure. We mingled with old friends (very old, in fact some dated to the Revolutionary and Civil Wars!), exchanged greetings with Mayor Nutter and his wife, who had just been customers earlier in the week and did the Mummers strut with the Ferko String Band.
There were veterans of war, glass blowers from Poland, Asian marching bands and even an 1840 fire pumper wheeled in from the Darby Fire Department. As the sounds of the parade faded, the lineup continued right out the door…all weekend long. Thanks very much to all who visited us on this festive, familial holiday.

So, let’s turn back the clock a few months and see what has happened…

In June, we entered our pastry chef Davina in a dessert competition at the Dock Street Brewery in West Philadelphia. The challenge was to utilize their house-made beer in a dessert (this was sounding too good to be true), so Davina relished the opportunity. A growler or two later she rolled out her “Beeramisu” with a mixed berry compote using their Summer Session and Espresso Porter. Competing against a dozen contemporaries, SHE WON! (or at least shared a 1st prize) Way to go, Davi.

We celebrated Flag Day in true form at the Betsy Ross House, who hosted their annual Flag Fest (Flag Day is June 14th for those who didn’t grow up in a family who decorated their Victorian porch with scores of antique flags, courtesy of Dad the collector). Mr. Jeffrey Heinbach manned the ice cream cart, posed as Charlie Chaplin, complete with worn-out shoes, walking stick and duck-like gait. In other news, Jeff previously had won an online competition for Philly’s Hottest Nerd, beating out national celebrity QuestLove of the Roots. Check Jeff out: http://www.shmittenkitten.com/2009/04/people-have-spoken.html

And speaking of celebrities, in the past week we have sighted a few others at the Fountain including Neil Patrick Harris and Amy Sedaris, who are in town shooting a film. We were hoping that Neil would don Dr. Doogie’s labcoat and get behind the fountain to mix phosphates, but he was out of character for the evening. And speaking of soda jerks, one of ours was recently featured in BON APPETIT magazine, a young lady by the name of Kiersten Wildermuth. She was shown sipping a soda at the Fountain but usually she can be found on the other side of the counter slinging cream with the best of ‘em. Isn’t she the perfect picture of a lady?

July is the month of blueberries and the Blueberry Ice Cream is truer than ever! FRESH – HEALTHFUL – BURSTING WITH FLAVOR. Get some before we go blue in the face telling you about it. And you might try it in our Fourth of July special sundae: “When in the Course of Human Events…” which features RED raspberries, WHITE marshmallow and BLUE-berry ice cream atop with strawberry stripes and whipped cream stars.

Finally, on the afternoon of Sunday July 12th, Adam Richman of the Travel Channel show "Man vs. Food" will film an episode at The Franklin Fountain (to air in September). Featured will be our famous Mt. Vesuvius sundae, among other homemade sweets. The film crew encourages lots of customer attendance and input, so visit the Fountain this Sunday for your chance at sundae stardom!

Stay tuned!

SPRING 1909 SCOOP

2009-04-15T17:32:00.011-04:00

WHOOPEE!

The warm weather returns and we’re back, ready to serve you and your family. There’s Spring in Our Steps with 1909 additions to The Franklin Fountain…

We’ve added a number of NEW items to the Fountain. Davina Soondrum, pastry chef extraordinaire, has made many pastry additions to keep the Fountain interesting throughout the Winter. She’s made Whoopee Pies, Marshmallow Peeps and new Clear Toy bunnies and baskets for Easter. The Ice Cream Department has added a Red Raspberry Sorbet and our Lemon Ice to accompany our three Soy Flavors added this week.

Thanks to our milk supplier, Longacres Dairy, we now have a new store fixture to quicken milk delivery. Longacres procures their milk from dairy farmers in Berks and Lancaster counties, and it is grass-fed. The retro milk dispenser has a real milk can soldered to its front door for good looks. Check it out. We hope it speeds your milkshake orders.

The ice cream department has added a new flavor called “Orange Rose Blossom.” Jeff Heinbach, our most veteran soda jerk, invented an ice cream soda titled “The American Beauty” combining this floral ice cream with vanilla soda water…Try it TODAY!

Jeff’s gift of prose with confectionery combinations have helped keep the Fountain “a-float” and he is finally receiving recognition for his work. Local blogger the Shmitten Kitten has nominated Jeff as Philly’s Hottest Nerd in their online contest that ends Friday, so please vote to support our man at www.shmittenkitten.com Turns out that the Philadelphia Weekly has also endorsed Jeff in his pursuit of this monocled moniker, even as his faces stiff competition from national celebrity, Questlove of The Roots.

We’ve boosted the chocolate cocoa content in our chocolate ice cream - to make our chocolate shakes even more richly delicious and we’ll be making our own in house strawberry flavoring for the strawberry ice cream this Spring and Summer with Green Meadow Farm strawberries. Davina has double cooked them in sugar and will be perfect for making our strawberry ice cream have a robust, rounded all natural strawberry appeal.

John Hutchinson and his cabinetmakers of Rose Valley Restorations took a dry, old cigar cabinet (right) from an old pharmacy in Chester, PA and did a beautiful job of bringing back its quarter sawn oak lustre. It now serves as the Dry Goods counter and we’ve added more nostalgic candies including NECCO wafers, Wilbur’s Chocolate Buds as well as many additional bottled sodas like Dad’s Root Beer and Nesbitt’s Strawberry, all related to old time traditions. We’ve also added a section of books for sale related to soda fountains, ice cream history and Benjamin Franklin. Book reviews will blossom naturally in the future as we describe what we’ve learned from them here in the SCOOP!

Finally in the works, Ryan is working on a project downloading all our family’s old pre-war 78 records onto a digital device to play in store for customers. Please bear with us as we try to bring you the best from our home Victrola to the Fountain. Keep your old Philco tuned to this station...

Winter 2009 Scoop!

2009-01-08T18:36:00.002-05:00

Winter Greetings from The Franklin Fountain!

We will be open Winter Weekends in the months of January & February and into early March: Friday & Saturday 12-12
Sunday 12-11
Full-time 7 day schedule will resume when the weather warms in mid-March.

Enjoy our December Scoop {below} if you did not receive and be sure to check out our Clear Toy episode on Don Polec's World. We still have a few Clear Toys left from our last production batches...

December SCOOP

2008-12-18T16:55:00.009-05:00

Warm Winter Greetings from The Franklin Fountain!

LAST CHANCE FOR CLEAR TOY
The Clear Toy candy has arrived and IS IN. The glassy confections made their colorful appearance in our antique vitrines the day after Thanksgiving. We decided, after being swamped by mail orders last Christmas, that we wanted to simplify our production, cut out shipping and give priority to walk-in customers by stocking the store first. So…we have plenty of candies to offer this year, from large red sailing ships and golden lions to mint green reindeer. Customers are encouraged to visit The Franklin Fountain through December 23rd to pickup Clear Toys that are available in the shop for the holiday. We will be open after Christmas beginning on December 26th and plan to sell off the remaining candies by the New Year.

Last week, the king of quirk in Philadelphia, Don Polec met his match in the Berley Brothers, interviewing them about their candies for his TV show. Don toured the Fountain, learned how to tie a bowtie and put a Clear Toy candy boot in his mouth in a classic display of his tongue-in-cheek (or foot-in-mouth) humor. Check out a snippet online at:
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/don_polec&id=6387560

‘TIS THE SEASONAL ICE CREAMS
Homemade Peppermint glass candies are poured onto a marble slab and broken up for use in our Peppermint Stick Ice Cream, now being served up at the Fountain. Try some with a scoop of hot fudge or bathing in a Hot Chocolate Float. Also, seasonal Egg Nogg Ice Cream has been added to our cabinet, and is a wonderful compliment to our homemade Gingerbread cake…warmed up of course. Caramel Ice Cream rounds out the year for the ice cream dept., and is suggested ala mode apple or peach praline pies.

MARLEY & US
On Monday, December 8th, Marley, the famous Philadelphia pup of Marley & Me fame, made a special PR appearance at The Franklin Fountain. Just having been filmed on TV that morning, Marley was pawing about town promoting his new feature film, to be released in theatres on December 25th. Marley apparently had heard about us from other local canines who have sampled our ice creams, in particular one French poodle from Society Hill with a palate for Peanut Butter. Eric served him up some Vanilla Soy Ice Cream, along with some peanut butter sauce and whipped cream…to which Marley practically leaped over the counter to lick.
Heel, Marley, heel…that’s antique marble!

INSECTS & ICE CREAM
Eric made ice cream history on Saturday, December 13th at the Arden Theatre opening of James & the Giant Peach. He and soda jerk Jesse served our homemade Peach Ice Cream ala chocolate-covered-crickets (a nod to the arthropods in the play). Each child that ate a cricket received an “I ATE A BUG CLUB” button. Suffice it to say, there was plenty of chirping about the room after that…

Fall '08 Scoop

2008-10-29T14:49:00.018-04:00

Welcome back!

GRAPES OF WRATH
The leaves are changing and that means The Franklin Fountain is changing too…shifting into “cold weather” mode. We finished out September with a Concord Grape Ice Cream that we branded as the “Grapes of Wrath” for the 75th Anniversary of the New Deal. At the related WPA Poster Festival held at City Hall, Farmer Eric and Laborer Ryan dressed in 1930s attire and gave a stump speech on “Organic Growth in Business” and compared their business to a cherry tree of values. More to come on The Franklin Fountain's values in future editions...

LOCAL APPLE PIES & CIDER
In early October, the Berley Brothers, Davina, Iryna & Tommy attended the National Apple Harvest Festival in Adams County, Pennsylvania. Shortly thereafter, Davina started making pies using local apples, which are scrumptious with a scoop of vanilla a la mode, or in an over-the-top Caramel Apple Pie Hot Milkshake! We’re also featuring Hot Apple Cider, using Lancaster County Cider mulled with spices and fruit.

CENTENNIAL ICE CREAM SODAS
One of the most anticipated events of the year was the opening of the Please Touch Museum. Now housed in a beautifully restored Memorial Hall, originally the Art Gallery for the Centennial Exposition in 1876, the new Please Touch is complete with bright shiny toys, an Alice in Wonderland maze, the old Dickens Village from defunct Strawbridge & Clothiers and the most gorgeous Dentzel carousel
we’ve ever seen. The Berleys, who grew up riding vintage carousels, were most excited about the gala when the Please Touch suggested they serve Root Beer floats. A purple-tie, black dress and tuxedo event drew over 1600 people and raised some much-needed funds for this emerging jewel of Philadelphia culture.

HALT FOR A PUMPKIN MALT!
And what would Fall be without a plenty of that large orange gourd? Pumpkin Ice Cream is certainly the most anticipated flavor of any season, and we traditionally begin making it the first week of fall or the last week of September. Some seasonal specialties are always popular
including a Pumpkin Malt and the “Great Pumpkin Sundae”
which is described on the menu:

“Pumpkin ice cream is entangled in a patch of pecans and covered in vines of Hot Caramel. A World War I flying ace crop-dusts with malt powder & cinnamon. Ghostly puffs of whipped cream appear, as true believers anticipate the coming of The Great Pumpkin each year.”

We will feature Pumpkin Ice Cream and Pumpkin Pies through Thanksgiving. Place your order in advance for fresh homemade pies and ice cream to go-with for the holiday!

HOT CHOCOLATE MENU
Friday October 31st will witness Hallow’een and the entrance of our “Hot Menu” for Winter, in addition to our regular Ice Cream offerings. European Drinking Chocolate accompanied by homemade marshmallows, Wilbur’s Hot Cocoa floating with whipped cream, Hot Milkshakes (a FF original) and a variety of Hot Sodas will warm your soul and make the chilly walk down Market Street all worthwhile. If you’re not in a drinking mood and looking instead for a healthy meal, try a piece of any of our house-made fruit pies, a la mode with a side of ice cream for dessert. Warm up to The Franklin Fountain in the Winter!

PRESS
The first ever "infomercial" was conducted of The Franklin Fountain, free-of-charge, by Comcast On-Demand. Check out the Get Local-Kids & Family section of On-Demand to view our 5 minute spot!

Following Saturday Night Live on NBC, November 15th, The Franklin Fountain will be featured on the TV program "1st Look" on Philadelphia and How to be a Kid Again. The program will also be available for viewing beginning the same day on www.lxtv.com/1stlookphiladelphia/

MISCELLANEA
Thanks to Mother Berley and her antique picture frames, The Franklin Fountain office has updated furnishings with inspiring soda fountain imagery lining our walls, old broadsides and rare ice cream truck photos.

And finally, now to the Phillies. Ryan, Eric and their parents attended Game No.4 and saw Philadelphia's finest wallop the Floridians 10-2 on a gorgeous October evening. HIP HURRAH FOR PHILADELPHIA!

August Scoop!

2008-08-17T15:35:00.005-04:00

August Greetings from The Franklin Fountain!

As we head into the sweltering meaty center of the summer, we have a HOT topic to discuss:
Sweat! After enduring a battery of complaints about the heat, sidling up to scoop amongst the soda jerks on seven hour shifts and constantly running up and down four flights of our 19th century building to and from the office, something emerged from the hazy heat {and it wasn’t just perspiration}…The Virtues of Sweat:

I. Let us not forget that we homo sapiens are just another species of animals, which biologically must excrete all sorts of fluids, with transpiration (also termed ‘perspiration’ in some universities) being the most elementary example.

II. Transpiration is a signal to let others humans know that we are feeling a particular way, especially under warm conditions when the anti-arid action is accelerated.

III. Male sweat is thought to contain pheromones that trigger physiological activity in females, increase brain activity in women and peak arousal.

IV. Transpiration contains mainly water, so as the body drinks it up, it must release it in various ways.

V. Sweating shows that we are working. The harder we work, the harder we sweat. This is not to be underestimated or under-exaggerated.

VI. What is the term “sweat equity” without sweat? True equity requires physical output or work to create wealth; otherwise it is hollow materialism.

VII. When we are perspiring together, sweat lubricates the situation.

VIII. Benjamin Franklin penned “No Gains without Pains” and, in particular, promoted
athletics to keep the body trim. Whilst sweating is a sign of our efforts, Dr. Franklin
patented a unique “disposable Underarm Sweat Shields” to absorb the effects upon
others. Don’t believe us? Just check the searchable engine.

A COUPLE OF PRETTY PEACHES

On a more refreshing note, we now are featuring Fresh Peach Ice Cream at the Fountain! A marathon shift including Iryna and Davina, our product managers witnessed the pitting and blanching of over 300 pounds of plump yellow peaches from Green Meadow Farm in Gap, Pennsylvania (that’s Lancaster County for you city folk). The resulting ice cream show the fruits of their labor and sweat of their brow. There’s no purer embodiment of summer than the perfect peach ice cream!

MODERN IMPROVEMENTS

On the other side of the coin, to cut down on the slippery sweaty steps, we’ve installed some ‘improvements’ to make the office run smoother. Earlier in the spring, we bought a pair of early oak intercoms out of the back of a beat-up VW microbus from a local dumpster diver named Neil. After a trip to the antique telephone doctor in Wisconsin, Patrick ran the wiring and these polished beauties {manufactured from the Connecticut Telephone & Electric Co. circa 1915} now ring between the Fountain & the Office.

Picked out of a central New York antiques shop, another contraption was languishing in Ryan’s loft as an object d’art and finally found a use. What was probably once a fishing line winder now functions to lower down messages and checks from the office to the Letitia Street sidewalk. After some experimenting and design tweaks, we’ve found the system actually takes longer than walking the correspondence downstairs but exercises the lesser-used elbow area muscles instead. Not to mention the extreme delight of passersby who might be taking pictures of the 1940s fisherman sign painted on the side of the building. Fish on!

In the Fountain, be sure to turn around and check out the time on our unique Seth Thomas store clock circa 1910. We’ve had our good friends at Alexander Horn & Co. of Wynnewood coordinate the beautiful gold-leaf eglomise advertisement of Franklin to the glass door. Now we just need to remember to wind it every 8 days. As he sent us on our way, Alex told me a little-known historical fact of horology: move the pendulum UP to “speed up” the movement or move the pendulum DOWN to “slow down” the swing, hence the popular phraseology.

BOTTLED BEAUTIES

After some intensive searching and telephone persistence, Iryna was able to source some additional old-fashioned sodas for the Fountain. A Manhattan Special is 7 oz. of carbonated caffeinated coffee bliss, made in Brooklyn since 1895. Try it chilled with a scoop of Maple Walnut on top for an “Old Curmudgeon” ice cream soda. {www.manhattanspecial.com}

Coca-Cola can now be had in three forms at the Fountain: in syrup form drawn from the tap or in two take-home bottle varieties, one the cane sugar version hobble-skirt from Mexico, the other a special limited edition 1910 diamond bottle. All give a quaint and somehow tastier experience than that 64-ouncer in the plastic stein one obtains at the local convenience shop!

July '08 Scoop

2008-07-10T21:54:00.011-04:00

R & R
We hope this letter finds you well.
In late June, Ryan and Eric traveled to The Ice Screamers, a collector group in Lancaster County that is interested in the history of ice cream and soda fountains. This is an annual personal vacation to chat with other passionate members from all over the world about ice cream objects. We supplied 3 old-fashioned ice cream flavors served up with accompanying stories, histories and regional interest. We also found a wonderful place to stay in downtown Lancaster, a 19th century tobacco barn converted to a boutique hotel (Lancaster Arts) that was a perfect stepping off ground for some exploring. And treasures abounded! Within a few brick blocks, we found Demuth’s Tobacco Shop, the OLDEST TOBACCO SHOP IN THE COUNTRY! since 1770, remodeled in mahogany in 1917. After a pouch of pipe mixture and a fistful of Pennsylvania leaf-wrapped stogies, we emerged in a cloud of hazy euphoria. Incidentally, if one visits Demuths, be sure to check out the home and studio of Charles Demuth next door, the Precisionist painter whose factory smokestack paintings of the 30s surely must have been influenced by his tobacconist background. And if you can’t make it to Lancaster, one can visit his work at the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan in New York City.

Early the next morning, we awoke to visit Lancaster’s legendary Central Farmer’s Market for breakfast baked goods and local produce. For two bachelors, any chance to buy groceries is rare and valuable, and shop we did. Eric was wooed by mouth-watering green stalks being pruned by an elderly woman at Hodecker’s Celery stand while Ryan romanced a pint of organic black raspberries, freshly picked by farmer Tom, a young Mennonite man who has an enterprising gift of gab. At $7 a pint, he was sold and 12 hours later served them at a Rittenhouse Square dinner party, over Franklin ice cream and fudge, of course…

Progress
We hope this letter finds you well. Ryan and Eric have been learning many valuable lessons, from proper delegation and fine-tuning recipes to the systematic care of all aspects of daily store operations like the streamlining simple things such as spoon placement and fudge warmer rotations. As our mind wraps around the idea that we are actually in the restaurant business in the year 2008 and not 1908, we have about 100 years of catch up work. This looks very different from the outside as it does from the inside. While last summer, Ryan and Eric were almost completely tuckered out from 7-day-a-week operations, we’ve realized that it is best to serve our customers by working smarter in our 4th Floor Office, keeping ourselves slimmer & trimmer from the long flight up. We’ve invested into many grassroots efforts and have seen happy returns from those. In their proper place, The Grateful Dead station has been found on our radio for us to connect with the actual chaos most restaurants experience in the 21st Century (see The China Cat Sunflower @ right). It is hard for customers to imagine this world. For us, it has become a performance art. We’ve found this our natural method of meeting customers one cone at a time. While we grapple with compassion for the local homeless population which seem to lap up our cream from trash cans the city is disregarding, we can only feel helpless to solve problems beyond our control, but by meeting them one human being at a time.

With the assistance of our accountant, we have tackled and learned Quickbooks, a program of vital necessity for any small time business like ours. Our accounting system at best had been up until this point a cigar box method of cash accounting and money drops at our local bank up the street paying every bill immediately in cash or check. Quickbooks, however, is best found by losing oneself in the slowness of the past, namely thinking at 1908 speed to absorb as much information as we can along the way. While we’re puttering along in a hand-cranked Model T, most businesses operate in gas guzzling turbo-charged Hummers along The Indianapolis Speedway. The Art Deco mantra of speed has been implemented in our most critical areas. More light gives us a chance to see what we’re doing. Not only have we multiplied positions (summer driver, prep crew, 3 ice cream makers and 3 designated managers), we have also multiplied systems for keeping all of this well-cared for and managed, properly-ensuring the quality and consistency of customer experience at every level. While we have certainly sped along, we have so much further to comprehend as we live paradoxically into the 21st Century.

Around The Town
In addition to giving an ice cream demonstration at Foster’s Urban Homeware on Saturday June 28th, the Fountain was featured in a variety of Philadelphia news channels in the month of June and July. Two online press pieces of note: streetalkin.com and Channel 3’s feature on the shop, which will air online again this weekend Finally, CNN 8 featured the brothers cranking homemade blueberry ice cream early in the morning of July 9th live in their studios at the PSFS building.

Just this Monday, the demolition crew arrived early to start dismantling our neighbor’s building at 112 Market Street. Ryan jumped at the chance to salvage the Victorian tin ceiling and he and Patrick expended great energies over the next few days taking it apart, panel by panel. The building, only half remaining of a 19th century brick structure, once housed Feitig & Son Meats in 1918, and a massage parlor later in the century as evidenced by the cedar-paneled sauna that was torn out. If the real estate market holds its stomach, a 5-story condominium building will rise from the dust.

Nothing’s New That’s Not Old
We’re belting out the 7th Inning Stretch Sundae in ode to the popular 1908 song “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” FOX News will be featuring the Berley brothers serving up this sundae on their morning show Monday July 14th at 8:50am in anticipation of their station's All Star Game coverage.

We have also called up from the dug out: fresh locally sourced Blueberry and Black Raspberry ice creams for July.

Eric is moving into one of the apartments above the Fountain, with a whole new outlook on personal materialism. He’s literally lived out of milk crates and an aesthetic performance lifestyle for 4 hectic years and is looking forward to a shorter commute!

Spring '08 Scoop

2008-05-22T21:47:00.007-04:00

Peace & Management
We are very excited as we embark on the experience of having hired managers that will enable the Brothers to manage the good work always going on at The Fountain, the Ice Cream Department and in the Office. We continue to try to take life slowly and methodically, emphasizing the details along the way.

Progress
Our new walk-in freezer has just been installed this week into our cellar, making life a lot easier to find our reserves for the weekend crush. Two men from Bally, Berks County, installed the locally made unit shown in the photograph. In addition, we have new sturdy rubbish receptacles, and more antique tables to our growing outdoor seating. With the arrival of Spring, we’ve potted more flowers and plants outside and in to freshen up the Fountain experience.

Sweet Acts
Our House-made Franklin Ice Cream Department has tried and succeeded with our Honey Rose ice cream, our fresh Blood Orange sherbet, and refreshing Lemon sorbet.
In honor of the Walnut Street Theater’s production of Les Miserables, try our French Vanilla ice cream with blueberry ribbons and a field of raspberries. “Crème de Lafayette” will be a patriotic flavor served all summer long marking the friendship of Franklin to France and her great general.

At the Arden Theater, we offered peanut butter bone doggy treats atop ice cream for their GO DOG GO children’s premier. Starting May 22nd, the "Our Town" production celebrating the Arden’s 20th anniversary. Air-Conditioning circa 1908! Beautifully designed vintage Franklin Ice Cream advertising hand fans are free with tickets and sold on our counters for $2. These will be collector’s items shortly!

Dry Goods Department
New Gift Certificates are in and looking beautiful. Remember you can get one in any denomination over $5. Starting in June, Fountain staff will be adding house-made Caramel sauce and dessert Peanut Butter in jars for take-home, next to our very popular Hot Fudge!

Unleash a “Burmese Tiger.”
This sundae introduced in early 1908 was made most meaningful as a concoction of peace and we’re now using its profits towards sending aid to victims of the recent cyclone thru Doctors Without Borders in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Please come and try our ginger and cherry vanilla ice creams striped with orange marmalade and dark chocolate syrups for a real ROAR.

Hot off the Presses:
The Franklin Fountain made the front cover of Frozen Dessert Magazine with a great article and lots of color photographs. See the article @ www.frozendessertmagazine.com
An article in gourmand magazine SAVEUR featured the Fountain as one of the top ice cream spots in the North, with Jenkins, Max and Ryan were photographed eating their favorite flavors.
Brother Eric was photographed en-large for the summer issues of WHERE magazine, serving up a float of Franklin Fountain fun for thousands of tourists.

…and for a Photographic Finale:
Photographer Andy Pinkham proposed an ‘occupational’ sitting to the Berley brothers one quiet evening in Fairmount Park. On the grounds of the Centennial Exposition, Eric and Ryan displayed the tools of their trade and confectionery wares while the golden sunlit descended into the golden envelope of night. The image is tinted and will be printed and framed to greet patrons of The Franklin Fountain for years to come. See Andy’s website for this and other fantastical works www.andrewpinkham.com

March '08 Scoop

2008-03-29T18:26:00.009-04:00

NOW OPEN SEVEN DAYS for SPRING!

Well, it doesn’t feel like spring quite yet but it will, and soon I can assure you. Slowly awaking from the doldrums of winter, we experienced some fortunate and some no-so-fortunate circumstances during the month of March. First, the good news…

Our relationship with the University of Pennsylvania continues strong as senior Eric Karlan (’08) wrote a beautiful piece on The Franklin Fountain for the 34th Street Magazine. Eric, a brother at Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity, learned about our shop while on a freshman pledge scavenger hunt and has been a loyal ice cream eater ever since. His story graced the cover of the magazine, which was inserted into Penn’s weekly newspaper The Daily Pennsylvanian, which just so happened to feature a huge photograph on the cover of Eric serving a Root Beer float at the Sophomore Skimmer earlier that week. That’s what you call a double scoop! No doubt many Penn men will be bringing their lady friends down to The Fountain for a “college ice”* when the weather warms up.

Also, on the sunny side, the new {old} Root Beer keg is plumbed in! We’re serving our own concoction of herbs, barks, sugars and other stuff on draught and calling it “Poor Richard’s Root Beer.” For those who don’t know the story, Charles E. Hires invented root beer in this very neighborhood of Philadelphia in the 1870s. Wikipedia has a good version of the story if you search Hires.
And, of course, Franklin’s original shop where Poor Richard’s was printed was located directly across the street from The Fountain {see plaque where the El station is currently}. Voila! Look for an article on root beer in STYLE magazine later this spring.

One Friday night, brother Eric was moving the large metal case full of candy molds in the basement. Unexpectedly, the weight shifted and in a split second he was pinned underneath of 1,000 lbs of 19th century cast iron confectionery molds. Luckily, the way it fell, his knees took the blow and he was able to reach for his cellular phone to call the shop. Jeff and Ryan bounded down the stairs to the rescue, relieving the pressure until the ambulance arrived. Over at the Jefferson trauma ward, Eric was walking within an hour and we all breathed a sigh of relief. He escaped with a good-looking scar and a story. Now when customers ask why we decided not to make clear toys for Easter this year, we tell them “the pressure was too great.”

On a personal note, our 26 year-old cousin Seth tragically passed away last summer. Seth was working for the American Red Cross and his family has organized a blood drive in his honor. The Berley family will be traveling to Wilmington, North Carolina in a few weeks to help out with the drive and give blood in his hometown. Anyone interested in participating can give blood at any Red Cross sponsored site in your locale during April. Email SethMattsonBloodDrive@yahoo.com afterwards and your donation will be credited in Seth’s honor.

If you visit the Fountain and you don’t see Ryan or Eric working the counter, it’s because we’re feverishly working backstage preparing for the busiest season yet! We’ve hired and are training three new staff members: Max, Jenkins and Ashley, who bring film, song and instrumental talents to the stage along with stellar soda-jerking stuff. In the ice cream room, Eric has hired Lawrence, a man of deep intelligence, world experience and a critical palate to help out making the ice cream this year. We’re also improving our equipment, including a new blast freezer and a walk-in {more like crawl-into our 19th century cellar} freezer to handle larger capacities. We're also continuing to improve our product sourcing & offerings for an even better customer experience.

Coming in April…

Jeff’s ideal for Spring:
“Le Paix” which is a peaceful medley of our new Honey-Rose Ice Cream floated in a Violet-Lavender-Berry soda, garnished with sweet, whipped cream and a quartered strawberry.

Old-fashioned paper straws made by the same company since 1888!

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Winter '08 Scoop!

2008-02-25T16:11:00.007-05:00

Philadelphia, February 1908

Warm winter wishes from The Franklin Fountain! Buckled down here in mid-February, we’ve got a lot to report in the past two months in life and business. New Years arrived without celebration, except for those customers who realized the Fountain is now open on weekends (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) in the Winter. We will return to a 7-day schedule sometime in March… Early in the New Year, the world lost a great man in Dick Warren (1935-2008). Dick was a mentor of ours in the ice cream business, a fellow collector of ice cream ephemera and a role model in life. Please see the eulogy [right].

By month’s end, we prepared the store to run under the capable hands of the crew and embarked for ten days on our annual Old Time Soda Fountain and Confectionery tour. First stop was the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg where the boys tread the early 1900s Moravian Tile Floors in search of local scenes. There we saw the Letitia St. House, a milkmaid and two spectacular and spectacled Franklin mosaics. Then onto the Midwest! went the cry, taking aim at Zaharako’s in Columbus, Indiana. In the last two years, this gloriouis soda fountain from 1899 was rescued by a local businessman, Tony Morbeck, and is being restored to the hilt. Ryan and Eric visited to see the progress in all of its deconstructed glory. Quarter-sawn oak paneling was being refinished, tin ceilings patched, gaslights re-gilded and stained glass cleaned. A very capable crew was onsite the day we visited, meticulously working towards a 2009 re-opening. We are truly inspired by the attention to detail and resources Tony has allocated for Zaharako’s and look forward to assisting with its restoration. Gentleman Morbeck truly deserves a “huzzah” for his efforts!

Next was the sparkling Schimpff’s Confectionery in Jeffersonville, Indiana where, since 1871, the Schimpff family has been making beautiful candies. Warren and Jill Schimpff graciously gave their full attention all afternoon to us, touring us around their soda fountain and candy museum … an absolute visual cacophony of confectionery. Ryan and Eric were overwhelmed by their stunning collection of candy advertising and antique hard candy machines, many of which still in are in service. There is a candy-making demonstration area that was drawing passersby from the street the week before Valentine’s Day, blazing with red hot hearts. We traded secrets on Clear Toy molding, sniffed the back room chocolate operations and sympathized with the daily trials of a labor-intensive high volume business. These folks have passion and it shows…keep it up!

Many other stops peppered our trip including another stop at Tom’s Ice Cream Bowl (Zanesville, OH), the only ice cream shop the Berley Brothers salivate over as hot roasted cashews and redskin peanuts emerge from the ovens to coat scrumptious sundaes. Antique shopping in Ohio yielded a van full of old wire ice cream tables for use at the Fountain (we don’t buy new ones) and a hard candy batch roller to continue our journey into the world of the sugar arts. Zingerman’s Deli and Bakery in Ann Arbor, Michigan was a must-see as they literally wrote the book on customer service that Eric had devoured this past year. We were very well received by founder Ari and the other owners of this local institution and were encouraged by their focused, organic approach to growth over the past 25 years. Check out www.zingermans.com to learn more about this amazing company! Rounding the trip out was the usual mix of art and architecture via the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn and the Detriot Institute of the Arts reminded us that so many great things begin and end with artists.

Back in the City of Brotherly Love, we are working towards exciting internal improvements at The Fountain. A new, old-style water fountain was just plumbed in on the Letitia St sidewalk to service the throngs of thirsty ice cream eaters in the summer. Made by Murdock of Ohio since 1853, it is an original design from the early 1900s and a refreshing example of American craftsmanship in bronze and iron. A vintage Hires Root Beer barrel from the 1930s will shortly dispense our home-made root beer recipe in tall chilled mugs, “on draught “ as it were. New systems, sundaes and soda clerks will signal the start of spring…stay tuned!

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