Gastronomista: "Ice Cream is Exquisite. What a Pity it isn't Illegal"

At least that's what Voltaire said. The Berley boys, Eric and Ryan have taken the hint and have created a vintage ice cream parlor and soda fountain making ice cream that much more decadent and naughty. The Franklin Fountain is in the heart of Old City Philadelphia, 116 Market Street to be exact, our favorite part of the city, Illadelph.

The Berley boys draw inspiration from Benjamin Franklin - they quote him incessantly, and go as far as to proclaim Benjamin Franklin to be the inventor of ice cream (unfortunately we know that as early as 200 BC the Chinese were eating a frozen delicacy of Milk and Rice - but the boys do account for an impressive history of ice cream in their Treatise on the History of Ice Cream in Philadelphia by a R. Berley). We too have Pennsylvania pride, and ice cream was in fact introduced to America by the Quaker colonists who brought ice cream recipes from Europe. The first recipie was published in Mrs. Mary Eales's Receipts in 1718:

To ice CREAM. Take Tin Ice-Pots, fill them with any Sort of Cream you like, either plain or sweeten'd, or Fruit in it; shut your Pots very close; to six Pots you must allow eighteen or twenty Pound of Ice, breaking the Ice very small; there will be some great Pieces, which lay at the Bottom and Top: You must have a Pail, and lay some Straw at the Bottom; then lay in your Ice, and put in amongst it a Pound of Bay-Salt; set in your Pots of Cream, and lay Ice and Salt between every Pot, that they may not touch; but the Ice must lie round them on every Side; lay a good deal of Ice on the Top, cover the Pail with Straw, set it in a Cellar where no Sun or Light comes, it will be froze in four Hours, but it may stand longer; than take it out just as you use it; hold it in your Hand and it will slip out. When you wou'd freeze any Sort of Fruit, either Cherries, Rasberries, Currants, or Strawberries, fill your Tin-Pots with the Fruit, but as hollow as you can; put to them Lemmonade, made with Spring-Water and Lemmon-Juice sweeten'd; put enough in the Pots to make the Fruit hang together, and put them in Ice as you do Cream.

We've gotten distracted (or excited - depending on how you look at it).

Speaking of excited, we love the website. And to whoever designed you, we love you too.

The Berley Boys: 1920 Soda Jerks

Back to the Berley boys, The Franklin Fountain opened in 2004 and serves up nostalgic sweets, fountain drinks, hand-made candies, and Franklin Fudge. And in their words, they aim to "serve an experience steeped in ideals, drizzled with drollery, and sprinkled with the forgotten flavors of the American past."

And with that, we're off to Philadelphia - Three Jamestown Juleps Please!