Ah, the middle of July.
Summer is in full swing, as Binghamton residents of all ages enjoy this lengthy stretch between Independence Day and Labor Day.
The warm weather is nice, but with a lack of national holidays from July 4 until the beginning of September, I decided to celebrate a lesser-known holiday: National Ice Cream Day, a 23-year tradition started by President Ronald Reagan.
That’s right — if you like Valentine’s Day chocolate and Halloween candy corn, you’re sure to love this unofficial celebration of creamy, sugary goodness that, coincidentally, lands right around the warmest days of the year.
A scoop or two wouldn’t do this great day justice, so I decided to check out three different ice cream parlors around the Greater Binghamton area, each suggested by readers who responded to my first column last month.
For some genius reason, I decided to complete this task in the course of one night — a three-parlor extravaganza, beginning at the new Yum Yum’s ice cream parlor in Endwell, as suggested by reader Tracy Young, a Broome County native. Young, 36, now lives with her husband and two young sons in Ashburn, Va., but sent me a list of eight local eateries that “no trip home for (her) would be complete without.”
I kicked off my tour with a hot fudge sundae, complete with vanilla ice cream, M&M’s, whipped cream and a maraschino cherry. Standing in line, I chatted with a young couple with an infant in tow, who welcomed me to Endwell, as it was my first time there. When I told them I’d recently moved from Long Island to Binghamton, the young woman’s face suddenly turned sour:
“Why?”
She explained that she has a friend in Northport, the next town over from my native Huntington, and that it had become nearly impossible to get this friend to come visit.
Perhaps if she brought said friend to Yum Yum’s, visiting wouldn’t be such an issue. The place had delicious ice cream at inexplicably cheap prices — and free sprinkles.
The second ice cream joint on my list was Pat Mitchell’s on Vestal Avenue in Binghamton’s South Side. Starting to feel full after my first stop, I decided to “man up” by ordering a medium-sized butterscotch sundae. This time I went with the strawberry cheesecake flavor, one of the store’s legendary tastes. Sixty years after the late Pat Mitchell began his entrepreneurship in Endicott, this flavor still hits the spot. My three scoops were drowned in butterscotch topping, whipped cream and, of course, the requisite cherry.
I made it about 75 percent of the way through before the brain freeze began to set in. My stomach began reading me the riot act, as I realized the diminishing marginal benefit of a second pile of ice cream.
It should come as no surprise to our longtime readers that Pat Mitchell’s wowed this newcomer. Our archives show the business begun in Endicott dominated the Press & Sun-Bulletin’s 1987 Reader’s Choice balloting, with 232 finger-lickin’ votes. All other parlors combined that year: 245 votes.
As badly as I wanted to complete the trio of ice cream parlors that a few readers had recommended — Suzy-Q’s in Hillcrest being the finale — I thought it smarter to ensure this column would more closely resemble “Dining Out” or “Cheap Date” than an obituary, so I reluctantly canceled the third leg of my trip. (Apologies to “Corinna,” who recommended Suzy-Q’s — I’ll make it there soon!)
The cancellation was probably for the best, although I was enjoying my “Joseph Bruno night” (blatantly mixing pleasure with business).
Strub is a senior at Binghamton University, a part-time copy editor at the Press & Sun-Bulletin and a new resident of Binghamton’s West Side. His column appears Thursdays.
cstrub@pressconnects.com
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