Whaley's brings ice cream back to its 1940s soda fountain service

Fountain of youth

Bailey Conrad, 18, left, makes ice cream floats and fountain sodas Tuesday for customers, including Chris Scheppers, right, at Whaley's East End Pharmacy. The pharmacy recently brought ice cream back to its soda fountain.
Bailey Conrad, 18, left, makes ice cream floats and fountain sodas Tuesday for customers, including Chris Scheppers, right, at Whaley's East End Pharmacy. The pharmacy recently brought ice cream back to its soda fountain.

Freezers clanked and floats fizzed Tuesday afternoon, as soda jerks scooped ice cream again at Whaley's East End Drugs.

Whaley's stopped serving ice cream at its soda fountain about 30 years ago after the old original freezers stopped working well enough to keep ice cream frozen. Over the past year, the Jefferson City drug-store finished a plan to bring ice cream back to the soda fountain by hiring new high school students to work the fountain and getting a new freezer.

Most things on the soda counter are original. A modern soda machine and new counter are among the few new touches. The original freezers and round freezer covers still sit in the soda fountain, but a new freezer filled with four cartons of ice cream sits off to the right. The store quietly began selling ice cream again two months ago but held a launch event Tuesday night to formally re-open the soda fountain.

Owner Stacy Welling said the event was the culmination of a year-long plan to try to bring ice cream back to the fountain.

"We did not do any public advertising at all," Welling said. "The only ice cream we've been serving was to our regular customers who come in and know that we have it, so this is our official launch."

In 1943, Whaley's East End Drugs began serving soda and ice cream at a central soda fountain when the store opened. Coca-Cola signage adorns a wall behind the fountain. Patrons can sit on the original stools with plump red cushions in front of the counter. On a wall just to the left of the fountain, black and white pictures show the original soda fountain sitting empty.

After the store stopped serving ice cream in the late 1980s, the soda fountain stayed open serving only drinks.

Mainstream sodas like Dr. Pepper, Barq's Root Beer and Diet Coke are there, but Whaley's also sells more exotic flavors like butter rum, marshmallow and cookie dough soda. Welling said one favorite drink is a cherry phosphate, made with "a lot" of cherry syrup mixed with soda water.

Chocolate and vanilla ice cream made by Central Dairy will be served all the time, but a different flavor will be featured each week. Ice cream and floats sell for $1-$4 each, depending on if customers want one to four scoops of ice cream.

By 5 p.m. Tuesday, about halfway into the two-hour event, about 30 people showed up for ice cream. Outside, most of the parking near the store's 630 E. High St. location was full. Customers didn't pack the store, but they filled it as people steadily streamed in. Overall, Welling said she's loved the feedback from customers.

"It's been cool to talk to our long-term customers who said 'I wish you still have ice cream at the fountain,'" Welling said. "It was a passion project. It's been fun."