Celebrate Ice Cream
July 20, 2011 by Chip Wood
Raise your ice cream scoop high this week, as you celebrate the invention of the ice cream cone. Sunday was National Ice Cream Day and July is National Ice Cream Month.
According to some accounts, on July 23, 1904, Charles Menches invented that uniquely American treat, the ice cream cone.
Here’s what Menches Brothers Restaurants says about it: “At the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, Frank and Charles baked waffles in Parisian waffle irons and topped them with ice cream. They then had an idea to wrap the warm waffle around a fid, a cone-shaped splicing tool for tent ropes. The waffle cooled and held its shape to provide an edible handle for eating ice cream. Returning home to Akron (Ohio), the Menches began production of ‘premium’ cones at their Premium Popcorn Works factory.”
According to The Library of Congress, Menches “is one of several claimants to that honor: Ernest Hamwi, Abe Doumar, Albert and Nick Kabbaz, Arnold Fornachou, and David Avayou all have been touted as the inventor(s) of the first edible cone. Interestingly, these individuals have in common the fact that they all made or sold confections at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, known as the St. Louis World’s Fair. It is from the time of the Fair that the edible ‘cornucopia,’ a cone made from a rolled waffle, vaulted into popularity in the United States.”
—Chip Wood
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