It’s getting warmer, and with the warm weather comes one of the best things about summertime: ice cream. There are few things that are more enjoyable on a hot summer day than a cold, refreshing ice cream cone.
We all recognize names like Rita’s, Bruster’s and Baskin-Robbins. These are easily recognizable because we all, more than likely, have one in or around our hometown. They provide a familiar atmosphere with a recognizable menu.
But for those of you looking to try something different, there are a variety of restaurants serving sweet treats this summer that can only be found in Elizabethtown. Places such as the Trolley Stop Diner and Twin Kiss serve quality food and ice cream while maintaining the intimate charm that one would expect in a small town.
The Trolley Stop is located on Hershey Road just before the entrance to State Route 283. They serve a variety of Hershey’s ice cream flavors, including soft serve. They have new ice cream features each week and plan to have even more features, including water ice, in the summer months. The restaurant includes a playground on which its younger customers can play.
Twin Kiss is a small, family-owned restaurant serving a variety of sandwiches and desserts. Their ice cream menu includes floats, milkshakes, malt shakes, sundaes and more.
Twin Kiss owner Kevin McCurdy explained that real ice cream is made with 10 percent butterfat, which is what the restaurant uses. “Ice cream is 10 percent butterfat and anything under that is ice milk; that is where other restaurants can buy cheap mix and offer it at a much better price than we can, because it’s cold and sweet but doesn’t have 10 percent butterfat,” he said.
You will rarely find new items on Twin Kiss’s menu. “I prefer to keep a limited menu, turn it over fast, and it will always be fresh… I think that we’ve come up with a real good recipe and a real good system, and it’s like the old saying, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’ That’s the way I see it,” McCurdy said. “It’s just as good today as it was 55 years ago.”
The ice cream does not disappoint. Cold, creamy and delicious, it is everything that ice cream should be. McCurdy recommends the root beer float; it is made with real, 10-percent-butterfat ice cream and his own homemade root beer that is mixed by hand. The creaminess of the ice cream transfers perfectly to the float, and the root beer gives it a quality that can only be found at Twin Kiss.
Buying your summer treats from a small, family-owned business can be beneficial for everyone. “Supporting small family businesses is a great way to stimulate the economy and help the middle-class,” first-year Rebecca Patten said.
“Small family-owned businesses are always fun to go to. They’re just really cute, and the people working there tend to be nicer, and you feel better about where your money is going,” sophomore Becca Sayler said.
Junior Ambre Biehl finds small establishments to be more homey and welcoming. “I like that they are not as commercialized,” she said.
This season, when the weather gets warm and the ice cream cravings begin, consider some of the restaurants that can only be found in Etown. These places have a uniqueness that won’t be found at larger chain restaurants. They care about their products and their customers. And, of course, the ice cream is delicious!
