Ice cream parlors (or parlours) are places that sell ice cream, gelato, sorbet and frozen yogurt to consumers. Ice cream is normally sold in three varieties: soft serve, which is typically dispensed by a machine with a limited number of flavors (e.g. chocolate, vanilla, and "twist", a mix of the two) and regular ice cream (also called hard-packed ice cream) and gelato, both of which may be available in as many flavors as a parlor has room to display in its freezers. Gelato is Italian ice cream that typically has almost half the butterfat content of ice cream and a smoother texture. Gelato parlors often produce their own product and don't serve American ice cream or soft serve. Sorbet is a frozen treat made from fruit, syrup and ice. No milk or cream is used. Frozen yogurt is a common low-fat ice cream alternative with a smooth texture that is similar to soft serve ice cream. All of these frozen products may be sold in ice cream cones, cups, sundaes, and milkshakes. Some parlors may also sell ice cream cakes, ice cream bars and other pre-packaged frozen sweets. In addition to frozen dessert products, many modern ice cream parlors also sell a variety of hot fast foods.
While some parlors remain open all year round (typically in warmer weather locations), many parlors colder climates stay open only during warmer months, particularly from March to November. Parlors in major metro areas, including those in colder climates, often remain throughout the year to satisfy high consumer demand for frozen ice creams, yogurts, and sorbets. Parlors vary in terms of environment, with some having only an order-up window and outside seating to others having complete indoor facilities. Some parlors have added drive through windows as well.
Read more about Ice Cream Parlors: List of Ice Cream Parlor Chains
Famous quotes containing the words ice, cream and/or parlors:
“He was high and mighty. But the kindest creature to his slaves—and the unfortunate results of his bad ways were not sold, had not to jump over ice blocks. They were kept in full view and provided for handsomely in his will. His wife and daughters in the might of their purity and innocence are supposed never to dream of what is as plain before their eyes as the sunlight, and they play their parts of unsuspecting angels to the letter.”
—Anonymous Antebellum Confederate Women. Previously quoted by Mary Boykin Chesnut in Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, edited by C. Vann Woodward (1981)
“When you’re alone in the middle of the night and you wake in a sweat and a hell of a fright
When you’re alone in the middle of the bed and you wake like someone hit you in the head
You’ve had a cream of a nightmare dream and you’ve got the hoo-ha’s coming to you.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“So it is with books, for the most part: they work no redemption on us. The bookseller might certainly know that his customers are in no respect better for the purchase and consumption of his wares. The volume is dear at a dollar, and after to reading to weariness the lettered backs, we leave the shop with a sigh, and learn, as I did without surprise of a surly bank director, that in bank parlors they estimate all stocks of this kind as rubbish.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)