food, and other musings: The Invention of the Ice Cream Cone

My meal at 21st Street Drive-In in Paso Robles over Labor Day weekend got me thinking about road food and greasy spoons. My passion for upscale places like Manresa aside, I love that kind of food -- I grew up on it, and when I go back home, those places are the de rigeur feasting stops. I was reading Jane and Michael Stern's column in Gourmet the other day (they had gone to Mississippi) when I realized that I have yet to wax poetic about a few places near and dear to my heart. Doumar's is one of them.

Besides still operating a drive-in, Doumar's claim to fame is the ice cream cone. A waffle cone maker stands in the front of the restaurant with a sign that reads

"This is the World's First Cone Machine
Still in use today, it was used in 1905 at
Coney Island N.Y. by Abe Doumar, inventor
of the ice cream cone & this machine."

A quick Google search turns up evidence to the contrary; though this may have been the first machine, it seems unlikely that Abe Doumar, a Syrian immigrant, invented the ice cream cone. Fellow countryman and pastry maker Ernst Hamwi is largely credited with being the first to make a crisp pastry in a waffle pattern, probably to help out a nearby ice cream vendor who'd run out of paper cones at the 1904 world's fair in St. Louis, Missouri. Any way you slice it, though, Mr. Doumar had something to do with the invention and/or proliferation of the ice cream cone at the turn of the century.

Besides its contribution to historical Americana, Doumar's is all about the food. They grind their own meat for burgers, whip up fresh limeades by hand, make the best milkshakes in town and still press their cones on that 100-year old machine. Gourmet named their ice cream cone one of America's best in 2002. Here's what Mom and Dad Food Musings have to say about Doumar's, a place they like to meet from time to time during the summer when Dad is working nearby and Mom is on vacation. (Now isn't that sweet?)

Mom says: "Carhops, metal trays, music piped through loudspeakers -- take a step back in time & visit Doumar’s, one of the great drive-in restaurants like those that were all over the South in the ‘50’s. Mr. Albert Doumar is still there, an elderly gentleman who has fed thousands of happy customers over the years. He walks around to greet you and makes cones on the original machine most mornings between 9 and 10:30."

Dad says: "If you love BBQ, then this is the place for you. They have lots of other dishes too. But we always get the Minced BBQ w/slaw (the North Carolina Way). My wife loves the Limeade or the Shakes with her BBQ sandwich. And Fries. I like the Cherry Coke myself. My favorite ice cream dish at Doumar's is the "Ringo". Vanilla Ice Cream on top of crushed cones, with hot chocolate sauce topped with whipped cream and a cherry."