Grand's Ice Cream Shoppe

07/20/2026

We'll be back this year with Philadelphia Italian Ice.

Event schedule is online for 2026!

https://roanncoveredbridgefestival.com/schedule%2Fevents

07/20/2026

Every day having our guests in for a treat is wonderful.

07/20/2026

Our first year participating and we will be back next year.

Five Things That Left Me Smiling July 16, 2026 • News Every year after our Ice Cream Social wraps up, I find myself thinking the same thing: How in the world […] Five Things That Left Me Smiling Read Post

07/19/2026

It's National Ice Cream Day....
What's your favorite flavor?

07/18/2026

Most people think ice cream started in Italy or France. The real story begins 500 years earlier, in the bustling laboratories of the Islamic Golden Age.

Arabian chemists weren't just making sweets. They were pioneering applied science.

They discovered that saltpeter, when mixed with snow or ice, could create a powerful freezing effect.

This endothermic reaction was a chemical marvel of its time.

They used it to chill syrups made from fruits, rosewater, and precious sugar into luxurious frozen treats called 'sharbat.'

This wasn't street food. It was a delicacy served in the courts of caliphs in Baghdad and Damascus.

The knowledge traveled slowly along trade routes. By the time it reached Europe, the original inventors were long forgotten.

Your summer cone has a very sophisticated, and very old, scientific ancestor.

07/13/2026

In the 1880s, an entire town made it illegal to sell ice cream sodas on Sundays. So drugstore owners found a loophole, and accidentally invented one of the most popular desserts in the world.

The town of Evanston, Illinois passed a “blue law” banning the sale of sodas on the Sabbath, since church leaders considered them too frivolous for a holy day. Soda fountain owners had a problem: customers still wanted something sweet after church. Their solution was simple. They served the ice cream with syrup poured on top, but left out the soda water entirely, technically staying within the letter of the law while completely ignoring its spirit.

A nearly identical story is told 200 miles away in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, where a soda fountain owner named Ed Berners is said to have done the exact same thing that same decade, purely because it was Sunday and sodas weren’t for sale that day. He liked the result so much he kept selling it, first only on Sundays, then every day of the week.

Either way, the name followed the same logic. The treat was called a “Sunday” at first, until local church leaders objected to a dessert being named after a holy day. So the spelling was quietly changed to “sundae” instead, close enough to keep the joke, safe enough to keep the peace.

Thus, an ice cream Sundae drenched in hot fudge and toppings was born!

-Donnie

eatshistory.com

07/11/2026

The family who came in today and rode Typhoon... Your Cirkul water bottle was left on the table
It is in the backroom awaiting pick up.

07/11/2026

It's "Make your own Sundae Day"
Of the combinations you can create in your own waffle bowl sundae.

07/04/2026

Come in early for something cold and sweet
We are closing at 7pm so staff can go enjoy the fireworks.
Opening tomorrow at noon as the holiday weekend continues.