On any given sundae

One might say that it’s a dish best ser ved cold, although it tastes pretty good warm too. Smooth and creamy or hard and crunchy, an ice cream sundae serves as a luxurious finale to a delectable meal or a guilty pleasure on a lazy afternoon.

Beloved by millions, there are no less than six cities across the country that claim to be the birthplace of this classic treat. In Two Rivers, Wisconsin, it is claimed that in 1881 George Hallaver ordered a dish of ice cream at a parlor owned by Edward Berner. He was just about to dig into his frosty treat when he spied a bottle of the chocolate syrup used in sodas and asked to have some poured over his ice cream. Berner obliged and watched the young man fall in love with the concoction. Buoyed by the positive response, Berner began to feature “ice cream with syrup” on Sundays for the same price as a plain dish of ice cream: 5 cents.

According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, a 10-year-old girl came into Berner’s shop one day and ordered a dish of ice cream “with that stuff on top.” It wasn’t Sunday, but the young lady insisted, saying that they could pretend that it was. After that, the dish lost its Sunday association and was sold every day in a variety of flavors. The dish was only called “ice cream sundae” when a glassware salesman placed an order for the long, canoe-shaped dishes in which it was served - sundae dishes.

Evanston, Illinois, also claims the ice cream sundae as a hometown creation.

According to legend, by the late 19th century, the people of “Heavenston,” as it was named by temperance leader Frances Willard, had already banned saloons from their town.

They believed Sunday was better suited to worship and piety than idle pleasures like those served from soda fountains.

Town officials even passed an ordinance prohibiting the sale of ice cream sodas on the Sabbath.

As the story goes, some creative confectioners and drugstore operators decided to serve up ice cream treats with flavored syrup - but no soda - on Sundays, in compliance with the law.

The Evanston Women’s Christian Temperance Union championed the creation as a pleasant alternative to alcoholic drinks.

Yet another tale plants the origin of the ice cream sundae in a quiet town in central New York.

“The year was 1892. Ithaca, New York, was dotted with local drugstores, where many a nickel was spent for a dish of ice cream,” begins the story on www.icecreamsundae.

com, the official Web site of the dessert.

One hot Sunday afternoon in 1891, following services at the Unitarian Church, the Reverend John M. Scott and one of his parishioners, Chester Platt, decided to go for some refreshments and to chat about the day’s sermon. They visited Platt’s store, the Platt & Colt Pharmacy, and ordered two dishes of vanilla ice cream from the clerk working that day, DeForest Christiance.

On a whim, Platt poured cherry syrup on top and dressed it with a candied cherry.

The two men sampled the dish and immediately started casting about for a suitable name.

According to Christiance, Scott proposed that it be named after the day it was invented: Cherr y Sunday. Other flavors soon followed, as did a public outcry over naming the treat after the Sabbath. Eventually, the spelling was changed to “sundae” and an American legend was born.

So which version is the truth? The stories persist in these and other places around the United States. However, in the end, the mystery may help increase the sundae’s allure for dessert lovers of all ages.

“While a half dozen other towns claim paternity of the ice cream sundae, Ithaca, New York, makes the best case,” says Michael Turback, author of “A Month of Sundaes” (Red Rock Press). “Ithaca history is supported by a newspaper advertisement run by the local drugstore in the Daily Journal in May of 1892 proclaiming ‘Cherr y Sunday - A New 10 Cent Specialty Served Only at Platt & Colt’s.’ It’s right there in black and white, and it stands unchallenged as the earliest documentation of the great American dessert.”