- By Carol Eibelheuser -
Someone else screams for a Mello-Roll ice cream cone. What the heck is a Mello-Roll? East coast residents, especially those from the Bronx and Brooklyn who have visited Jones Beach, will know exactly what it is. Does it bring back memories of the 40s and 50s? Well, it is a cylinder of vanilla ice cream about 3” long by 1” in diameter wrapped on the long side with paper. There were two types of waffle cones: one regular shaped with the diameter to fit the Mello-Roll, and the other had a
rectangular collar for the ice cream, short stemmed and connected to a flat bottom to collect the drips. The soda jerk would take the paper off the Mello-Roll as he put it into the cone. Sometimes it was tricky.
My Google research said that this particular ice cream was rich and velvety because it contained more butterfat than regular ice cream. Licking this roll often moved it around in the cone. What fun!
Next to my Dad’s market was Carroll’s candy store. It had a soda fountain with stools. It carried a big variety of items like a convenience store: comic books, magazines, newspapers, candy and, of course, Mello-Roll ice cream cones. After WWII the Mello-Rolls seem to have disappeared. But they didn’t disappear from my childhood memories!