The news that not one but two gelato shops are coming to Main Street is mouth-watering. They’ll be packed, and add plenty of life to downtown.
But they won’t be the first such places.
In 1954, the Ice Cream Parlor opened where Brandy Melville is now. It was an instant hit. Fred Cantor found this story from that year:
Several years later, the Ice Cream Parlor moved to Compo Shopping Center, where Cohen’s Fashion Optical is now. Its final location was on Post Road East just past Colonial Green, in what is now an office building.
Generations of Westporters remember the Ice Cream Parlor’s wrought iron chairs, penny candy, ice cream concoctions, and the “Pig’s Trough.” If you finished it, you didn’t have to pay. It was $69.95 half a century ago. That’s serious money.
A small portion of the Ice Cream Parlor menu. “The Pigs Trough” cost $69.95 — but was free if one person could eat it all in 3 hours. Above it was the “Staples Fruit Delight,” a large $2 sundae.
And of course, there was the menu, signed by everyone famous who ever enjoyed the Ice Cream Parlor.
Today’s kids are making their own childhood memories at Saugatuck Sweets — the modern-day Ice Cream Parlor.
Soon, we’ll add gelato shops to the mix. Here’s wishing them long, fruitful lives here.
And if they really want to win our hearts, they should add a Pig’s Trough.