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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 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!
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 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...
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 CREAMSHomemade 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…
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 & CIDERIn 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 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!
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