Today I have some photos to share from an eatery that is probably little-remembered by many people... the Ice Cream Cone walk-up window on East Center Street. The first five scans are from GDB friend Mike Cozart (not counting the map detail), along with some information from him. He always has information!
I shared this scan in THIS POST ((and cleaned it up a little this time) when a discussion of that shop arose in the comments. Do any of you remember getting ice cream at this location? This picture is from 1985.
Looking at the souvenir "fun map" from 1995, you can see where the Ice Cream Cone shop was located. Right above Mary Poppins' head.
Another view from 1985, showing the fanciful sign above the service window. Notice that the Carnation name was used - Nestlé acquired the Carnation company that very year.
Ooooh, orange sherbet! Or maybe a scoop of Strawberry, with orange on top? This (and the next two) are from 1987.
"Junior Sundae" was my rapper name when I grew up in the 'hood.
Oh man, a "Super Waffle Cone Sundae", there we go. Why would you buy anything else? Extra cherries please.
A few weeks earlier (November 3rd) Mr. X took this nice photo. Just because I'm a little stinker, I would go up to the window and ask for a Big Mac and 10 nuggets with honey mustard sauce.
And only days before that (October 28th), he took this lovely night shot! From what I can glean online, this Ice Cream location closed for good in 2012.
A big THANK YOU to Mike Cozart (and Mr. X too)!!
Major ; I don’t think that lady is waiting to get ice cream - she appears to have her mouth lip-locked to her boyfriend’s!!
ReplyDeleteI remember many times at this location only ONE castmember working - and the line would build up at the worker took the order, money and then had to go get your ice cream. On busy days there could be three employees - a cashier , a server and a scooper.
One hot day I remember the cast member could barely hear the orders because of several small fans running - I asked if there was no air conditioning and she replied no ... just the fans!! It must have been really hot in there.
I live root beer and sometimes I’d get a root beer float at the Cone Window ..... but they were not on the menu .... I had friends who thought I was making it up that I would get root beer floats there. A friend of mine said when she tried they said they didn’t make them there. I didn’t have the receipt for them. The next time I kept the receipt and it said FOUNTAIN DRINK and SINGLE SCOOP. That wouldn’t really prove they were making me a root beer float. Then one visit with my friend I ordered a root beer float ( still not on the menu ) and they took my money and gave me a root beer float!! Right in front of my friend !! I had actual LIVE PROOF!! The receipt this time even said ROOTBEER FLOAT.
Another item sold here was a sliced up apple with Carmel sauce all over .
Major-
ReplyDeleteI certainly remember this shop, but it's doubtful I ever ate there. Although... it may just be my memory spazzing-out. I definitely walked past it many times on those lucky occasions when I was coming from, or going to backstage.
Wasn't it also referred to as the Main Street Cone Shop-?
Thanks to Mike (& Mr. X).
I do remember this ice cream window and bought a cone there a few times, back in the nineties.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why you couldn't get the strawberry topping used in the Waffle Cone Sundaes, on the Junior Sundaes?
I worked in the Cable Car Kitchen Ice Cream Parlor at Knott's, and we also did not have air conditioning. Of course, in the summer, the ice cream was more popular and the lines would be longer. The more we kept opening the freezer lids/doors to scoop the ice cream, the more the warm air would get in there. The ice cream would get so soft after a while, that we sometimes couldn't even get it to stay on a cone and we'd have to turn it upside down in a small dish. Other times, it was so soft that we just couldn't sell a particular flavor at all, because it was completely "mush."
Thanks, Mike, Mr. "X" and Major!
As I think I remarked few weeks ago, we never bought anything here, but we walked past it many times on the way to the lockers. We preferred this locker room to the one outside the gate since it was much easier to access. Plus the locker doors tasted like orange sherbert.
ReplyDeleteWere you guys saying that once upon a time there was seating for the cone shop where the lockers were eventually installed?
Mike, your story about the root beer float reminds me of a 1991 visit to Young's Dairy outside Yellow Springs, Ohio. It's out in the country, and it's sort of what Knott's might have been if the area had stayed rural and they'd been ice cream farmers.
There's a large, indoor walk-up counter and indoor eating area, and on summer weekends the lines can get pretty long, even with many registers open. On this particular visit they had a bumper crop of strawberries and fresh strawberries were an option with everything.
There was a strawberry sundae on the menu, but it was a bunch of strawberry syrup on the ice cream, and I was hot and didn't really want that. When I got to the window, I asked if they could make me a dish of vanilla ice cream with just fresh strawberries and whipped cream on it. They had to confer for a second to figure out how to ring it up, then happily gave me what I had asked for.
On the way to the seating area, three or four people in line said "that looks really good" and asked me what I had ordered. I told them it wasn't on the menu and explained what I had asked for, and by the time I left, there were quite a few people enjoying the same dish I had had.
The next time I went back (a year later), that sundae combination - vanilla ice cream with strawberries and whipped cream - was on the menu. I'm sure I'm not the first person who ever asked for it, but I like to think my timing and the other people who asked for the same thing immediately afterwards had an impact.
I don't remember this place, but I could go for some frozen delights right now. Chuck's story reminded me of a certain Captain. "Someone took more strawberries." Mike reminded me how good a root beer float is on a hot day. Does anyone know if it was always an ice cream store? Thanks to Mike and X and Major.
ReplyDeleteHere's what the window looked like in 2017. The wire casing for the sign is still there, as are the cones on the window.
ReplyDeleteChuck, you mentioning the orange sherbet lockers made me think of the barber shop we used to go to. It was behind an ice cream shop, so it always smelled good!
Thanks, Mr. X and Mike.
For years I have collected Hallmark Nostalgic Shops and Houses ornaments (I want to stop, but they won't discontinue the stupid line!) Anyway, this shop looks almost identical to one of those ornaments. I can just see the sculptor waiting in line for a cone and saying, "Hey, this place looks like a good ornament..."
ReplyDeleteWe used to go there on our rare and infrequent visits to the park (every three years or so) because it was never crowded.
ReplyDeleteSad to see the little tucked-away treat shop is gone; I guess on our last visit we were too absorbed in Galaxy's Edge to notice.
Thanks for the tribute, Major!
Mike Cozart, you could be right that woman, I didn’t even notice the guy behind her! It seems crazy that Disneyland would have only one person working the window - for ice cream, something that was surely always popular - unless it was the slowest of slow days. It is also surprising that they cheaped out and did not provided air conditioning; I would assume that they STILL have places with no AC. Funny about the root beer float controversy; I guess I would be like your friends, if an item isn’t on the menu (at the park), then I would assume that they won’t make it. I feel like, as long as they had access to root beer and vanilla ice cream, they could do it, but some places won’t do custom orders. At least you finally got proof positive! The sliced apple with caramel sauce sounds like the thing that you can get for little kids at McDonalds if you don’t want them to have ice cream.
ReplyDeleteNanook, I must have walked past that window, but I didn’t ever get ice cream from it. The other Carnation location (across Main Street) would have been my ice cream place! I don’t know what the official name for the place was.
TokyoMagic!, maybe they just tried to streamline production by limiting customer options? It doesn’t really make sense to me. As I said to Mike in my comment to him, it seems nuts that by the ‘80s or ‘90s they had not put AC in the Cable Car Kitchen Ice Cream Parlor. Especially since the hot summer air could potentially ruin the product!
Chuck, I didn’t even know there were lockers outside the gates at Disneyland! I still remember my date and I were heading back to our car, the park had closed, and we realize that we’d forgotten about our stuff in the lockers. The security guard was VERY reluctant to let us back in, even though we still had our paper receipt with the locker code. He finally did let us fetch our coats, but you could tell he wasn’t happy about it. Meanwhile, looking at that photo of the hot fudge sundae at Young’s Dairy makes me want ice cream at 8:30 in the morning. It wouldn’t surprise me if your request for fresh strawberries rather than strawberry syrup was really a factor in Young’s Dairy adding that option to the menu!
Jonathan, isn’t it snowy and cold where you are? Of course, ice cream is good in any weather, really. I like root beer floats, but I am picky, and mostly like them with A&W root beer.
Andrew, thanks for the link, it definitely looks like a “closed” location, in spite of the clues about its former identity. The ice cream shop that was near the barber shop must have made their own fresh cones? Otherwise I don’t think of ice cream as having much of an aroma!
Stu29573, I’m not sure what the Hallmark Nostalgic Shops and Houses ornaments are… do you actually hang them on the tree? Or are they more of a “little village” kind of thing? I’m surprised that Disneyland doesn’t sell ornaments of individual buildings at the park!
Tom, I suppose little shops like the ice cream cone shop come and go over the decades, so it’s natural to not notice when it’s gone. Presumably something else came along to replace it - who knows, maybe you even went there for a cone!
Not only do I not remember this place, I didn't know lockers were ever located over here. I thought they were in the Bekins/Global storefront by the Emporium.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like we rented a locker on the first couple of trips with the kids, and so from the dates, it would have been over here, but it's all a blank to me.
All I can say for sure is that I have been down this street to look at the brick sample wall, and that I have spent more time on East Center street than West ever since the Carnation shop took over the Flower Mart. But not much made an impression, I guess.
I'm not a big fan of ice cream, so it's natural that I would not noticed a hole-in-the-wall place. But that waffle cone with caramel syrup does sound good. We had some ice cream made from cashew milk the other day, and it was better than the regular kind.
Thanks Major, Mike and Mr. X.
JG
Major, yes you hang them on your tree, although I suppose you could set them up like a little village. I started buying them when they started the series in 1984 and have every one since. THEY WON'T KILL THE SERIES! Heck, we didn't even put up a tree for the past two years, and I STILL bought them!!! HELP!!!
ReplyDeleteI have so many precious memories getting ice cream here with my dad when we'd visit the park. Sometimes more than once a trip! We'd sit at the little tables in front and listen to the dentist sound effects (and others) from the windows. It was a great place to take a breather, enjoy some ice cream, and then head back out into the rush. I was so disappointed to see it was gone on my latest visit.
ReplyDeleteMajor, these are great pictures!
ReplyDeleteI especially love picture #3 - the close up of the Ice Cream Cone sign. That picture would be fun - framed and hanging on my kitchen wall. If my house was bigger, I'd like the original sign hanging on my wall!
The evening photo, with the sign lit, is especially nice, too!
Stu, I hear you (regarding collecting stuff)! I spent the first 50 years of my life collecting A LOT...now I'm spending the next 50 - getting rid of [most of] it. (I still, occasionally, buy something I love.)
Major, regarding the map you posted, I see that the "Lost Children" building is, itself, lost in the woods.
Thank you, Major, Mike, and Mr. X!
I totally forgot this place was there! That locker area was our go to place for storing our coats for later in the day and goodies we might have purchased. There were a number of times I would get ice cream from this location as the line or wait was never really all that long.
ReplyDeleteLittle tucked away 'gems' like this were always a (re)treat from the crowds. So sorry to see another on has gone away. So few are left. KS
ReplyDeleteJG, that’s the place I generally go for lockers; I know that I did used to go to the old Bekins/Global area, but I don’t know if they’ve had lockers there lately. I’d check my resources, but… I’m away from home until late tonight. I don’t spend much time on either of the Center Streets - even now I’m usually feeling the pull of the rest of the park. Some things never change. Not a big fan of ice cream?!? I don’t even understand that! Ice cream from cashew milk, hmmm. I like almond milk a lot, but have never had cashew milk. Sounds… interesting!
ReplyDeleteStu29573, wow, nice. So am I to understand that you have somewhere around 36 different ornaments from that series? Impressive! Funny that you wish they’d kill the series. You should just start spending hundreds of dollars on Beanie Babies like I do.
SunniDaze21, aw, I’m glad you have some great personal memories of this ice cream shop! And I love that you could hear the cries of somebody getting their teeth drilled/pulled. It might make you wish you could brush afterwards. Bummer that it is gone, hopefully they have put a good ice cream joint somewhere else.
Lou and Sue, I’m all for original signs - not that I own any. But I would if I could! The Richard Kraft auction from a few years ago was probably the best opportunity, and those went for a darn fortune. I do love that night shot, so pretty. I am a die-hard collector, and don’t even want to think about getting rid of all my junk. Like the “stuff from the box” treasures - there’s too many, and they’re not worth that much. What do I do with them? And yes, the “Lost Children” building is weirdly depicted as if it was in the forest. With the wicked witch who will eat the kids.
Irene, thinking of the lockers always makes me laugh at how we would try to jam as much in them as possible. We’d roll up our coats into small rolls, and jam them in, so that we could take as much advantage of that little 1 foot cube as possible (they were deeper than one foot, of course).
KS, I know exactly what you mean. I feel like the powers-that-be don’t understand the appeal of little tucked-away areas. Sometimes a person just needs a little escape, even if it’s just feet from the hustle and bustle.
I used to get an ice cream cone here every time I went down to Disneyland. I liked it because there wasn't the long slow line like at the Carnation Cafe/Parlor. Great pics today!
ReplyDeleteK. Martinez, there's nothing like knowing where to go when you want to avoid long lines that all the suckers are standing in!
ReplyDeleteMajor, the cashew ice cream tasted just like cream ice cream, no nut flavor at all. I would not have known the difference if I hadn't seen the package. I used to love milk on my cereal and ice cream, cream in my coffee, etc. like all people, and one day I woke up and all that stuff made me terribly ill. So no more ice cream for me. No idea why.
ReplyDeleteDo you have that 1995 map in total? I don't think I have ever seen that one. I found my 1968(?) and 1972(with Bear Country) maps in the garage last fall. I am going to try to get them scanned so I can share them.
JG