Vintage Ice Cream

Soda Fount

Arizonans Still Put the Fizz in the Old-time Ice Cream Biz

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Their counters come in marble, oak or mahogany, having survived many generations. Sounds of Ricky Nelson singing "Hello, Mary Lou" mix with the whine of an ageless stainless-steel blender mix570S ing a frosty malt.

Anticipation builds as customers await a frothy ice cream soda served in a tall glass and topped with whipped cream and a cherry, or a chocolate sundae covered with nuts.

Others prepare for the delicious never-mind-the-calories first spoonful of a banana split, or a big bite of a burger with cheese and bacon, hot from the grill.

Their faces reflect in the mirror behind the counter. Some are strangers, others neighbors, all brought together by an American institution from another era - the pre-1959 soda fountain, still whirring along in parts of Arizona.

Located on North Seventh Street in Phoenix, MacAlpine's remains the oldest continually operating soda fountain in the Southwest, dating back to 1928, when it opened as Burch's 7th Street Pharmacy. Canadian-born pharmacist Fred MacAlpine bought it in 1937 and changed the name.

The pharmacy closed in 1991, but the fountain, lovingly preserved by current owners Monica and Cary Heizenrader, endures. They kept the original stainless-steel mixers, a circa 1950 Coca-Cola dispenser and, above it all, a vintage ceiling fan with a sculptured ice cream cone dangling from the chain.

There's a lot to look at. The Heizenraders take pride in MacAlpine's walls decorated with original soda and ice cream signs, the room's beautiful early 20th-century walnut booths and a display of original glassware and straw holders.

Virginia Briscoe, with her pharmacist husband, Don, operated the pharmacy and fountain from 1964 until 1991. She recalled a famous [LEFT] Warm colors, the fine patina of age and the rich scents of vanilla, chocolate, cherries and cream lure merry hedonists to MacAlpine's. [ABOVE] Laura Sachs, flanked by son Billy and daughter Katy, enjoys old-time treats at the Sugar Bowl in Scottsdale. [BELOW] For 40 years beginning during Prohibition, the Adolph Coors Company produced malted milk powder, an ingredient in malted milkshakes and candy.

customer. "Yes, I remember Wayne Newton. He and his brother became regulars at MacAlpine's. We hired girls from North High to be our evening soda jerks, and that brought the boys in." To add to the lure for teenagers, she said, "We also sold phonograph records."

And today, from its 1950s jukebox armed with that era's music to its sodas, shakes, cones, sundaes, splits and flavored sodas to its favored chicken salad sandwich, MacAlpine's delivers much more than nostalgia - it serves up tradition.

For any dessert lover's appetite, the Top Hat Sundae sports a fluffy cream puff filled with vanilla ice cream and topped with whipped cream and a cherry. Owner Carroll B. Huntress III pointed out many of the fountain treats were created and named by the children of his uncle, Jack Huntress, a marketing executive for Chrysler Motor Company, who saw the need for a family restaurant and ice cream parlor in Scottsdale while visiting in 1957. Huntress, who bought the Sugar Bowl from his uncle in 1985, said, "We still use Uncle Jack's original recipes for mint, cherry and vanilla syrups."

Tina Roderique of Scottsdale, now a mother of two young children, remembered her childhood days at the Sugar Bowl. "My sister and I didn't like Mexican food, so our folks left us at the Sugar Bowl, telling us to 'be sure and eat a good dinner.' We never ever did eat a 'good' dinner. We sat at the fountain and made up our own sundaes. To keep our secret, the Sugar Bowl waitress would give us a plate with only a pickle left on it, to show our parents. We did this every weekend."

East of MacAlpine's, in Old Town Scottsdale, stands the Sugar Bowl Ice Cream Parlor and Restaurant, a landmark for four generations of ice cream lovers since its opening on Christmas Eve, 1958.

Today the Sugar Bowl remains as popular as when it opened. Manager Paula Cano began working there as a teenager in 1968. "It's a fun job," she said, adding proudly, "I'm on my fourth generation. But you'd better like kids." And kids still love the Sugar Bowl.

With its distinctive candy-striped decor, Tiffanystyle lamps and popular fountain, the Sugar Bowl menu oozes with sundaes and splits, including Gosh-Awful Gooey, Dsireme (D-Sire-Me), the Tin Roof and parfaits named Blarney Dream and 23 Skidoo. Purists find a choice of 13 flavors of ice cream plus a special Treat of the Month. To satisfy South of Phoenix and Scottsdale, Alphonzo Sanchez spends his days at Austin's making 30 to 40 flavors of ice cream, 80 gallons a day, six days a week. A Tucson favorite since 1959, Austin's serves the whole range of flavors-from basic vanilla, chocolate and strawberry to the more exotic jalapeño, root beer and, seasonally, pumpkin. "We're a neighborhood hangout," Austin's owner Lynda Wilson said proudly. Every day loyal locals pack her 98-seat restaurant and fountain counter, where the three-scoop chocolate milkshake reigns as the most popular item. "Ice cream," claimed the Globe native and former Hollywood movie production coordinator, "softens the lines on a worried face. Better than a face-lift!"

Happy-faced cartoon characters - "Connie Cone," "Frankie Frankfurter" and "Bobby Burger" -have played their way across Austin's front window for several years. They were created by Tucson schoolteacher and artist Catherine Dunham, who began working at the soda fountain at age 17, and she returns regularly to repaint her characters with seasonal changes.

The brainchild of Merrill and Eleanor Austin, On every record! who moved to Tucson in the late 1950s, Austin's opened for business on March 7, 1959. Merrill, from an ice cream-making family in Watertown, New York, had learned the restaurant business while working at Borden's, the large dairy company. What makes Austin's unique are the ice cream flavors, still created using Merrill and Eleanor's original recipes.

Ice cream brings to mind a word clearly describing Austin's customers, Wilson said: "happy."

The Rock Springs Cafe, just off Interstate 17 north of Phoenix, began in 1918 as a canvascovered store. For the past 19 years, the popular stop has been home to the old soda fountain from the former Lute's Drug Store in Scottsdale. The stainless steel fountain, with its original Bastien Blessing dispensers (chocolate, vanilla, cherry, Coke and strawberry flavors), began life in 1933.

At Rock Springs, Bev DeWitt runs the fountain, serving ice cream sundaes, floats, milkshakes and sodas. "Most people don't know what a real ice cream soda is," she said. Those fortunate enough to have DeWitt make them a soda will be wellrewarded. "I make them the old fashioned way,"

she explained, "except we have to use bottled club soda water." It's still a tasty treat.

Sunshine glints through a Safford storefront window, bathing Arizona's, if not America's, ultimate soda fountain treasure in light. Closed now for two years, its most recent incarnation was as Lolly's, run by Graham County escrow officer Marilyn Welker. The long fountain, with its marble-topped oak counter and its massive backbar with a refrigeration unit below, first opened in Warner's Drug Store in 1904. Most locals remember it as the favorite spot in The Best Drug Store which operated from 1911 to 1989. The historic fountain reemerged as Lolly's 18 months later. "It's never been anywhere else," Welker said. On Lolly's fountain, she reflected, "It was one of those dreams you want to do." As for reopening, Welker lamented that Lolly's doesn't fit into her future, but she would love to see Safford residents slurping sodas by the fountain again someday.

Legend has it, General Eisenhower sat right here and had a milkshake," boasted Robert Sant, coJowner with pharmacist Tom Burrell of Sant's Drug Store in Yuma. Sant's father, Ferdy, had talked of Ike passing through town in 1942 on his way to visit General Patton at his nearby desert training site prior to the invasion of North Africa. Sant sat at the original 1942 fountain counter (its top was re-covered with Formica in 1950) during a busy lunch hour. Nearly all 19 stools in Yuma's oldest drug store and fountain were filled with hungry customers, who came to complement their sandwiches with milkshakes enthusiastically prepared by Fred Diaz.

Diaz, a New York City native, retired hospital administrator and self-taught soda jerk, prides himself on making thick, tasty shakes. "I experimented until I got it the way I like it," he said. "I do it my way."

He's among the few remaining soda jerks from those who worked the more than 100,000 soda fountains that once flourished, mostly in drug stores, in the mid-20th century.

It's a part of our American identity. A gathering spot, a neighborhood hub. Soda fountains will always attract the young, who sit high upon stools and fidget with soda straws or spoon goopy sundaes. It's a place for conversation, hanging out, connecting. For example, recently at MacAlpine's, a young boy at the counter paused from his soda to confide in a serious tone to the young girl next to him, "My hamster ate my homework." Some things, thankfully, never change. AH In rekindling his love for strawberry sodas, grilled cheese sandwiches and triple-scoop chocolate milkshakes, Jeb J. Rosebrook of Scottsdale met many wonderful people.

Although Terrence Moore of Tucson loves ice cream, he limited himself to one 1,500-calorie treat at each soda fountain.