If you've never gone to an authentic ice cream parlor, here's your big chance. You may think you've stepped back in time when you enter the Franklin Fountain. The decor looks picture perfect because much of it is original equipment and mint condition antiques from former soda fountains -- including a fully functional soda draft tower from 1905 -- a precursor of the soda guns of today.

Then there are the marvelously concocted sundaes and splits -- which all have serious-but-silly names like You May Fire When You Are Ready, Gridley and the fizzy phosphates and sodas made the old-fashioned way, with syrup and seltzer. Lastly, the owners themselves, brothers Ryan and Eric Berley, look like the ghosts of soda jerks past in their white pharmacists' jackets, Brylcream coifs and waxed mustaches.

It may appear gimmicky, but their earnest enthusiasm for getting everything just right, down to researching authentic period recipes, making waffles from scratch for ice cream sandwiches and using antique glassware for their sundaes make you feel nostalgic for a time that you may not even remember.

Categories: Ice Cream Parlors

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