🍒 Scoops of Truth...Ithaca?: The Tangled, Tasty Tale of the Ice Cream Sundae

🍦 Happy National Ice Cream Sundae Day — July 8! Yes, there’s a holiday for that. And yes, the debate over who actually invented it is still a thing.

Just in time for National Ice Cream Sundae Day, we’re diving spoon-first into one of the nation’s longest-running (and most delicious) local rivalries. Because depending on who you ask—Ithaca, New York, or Two Rivers, Wisconsin—the origin of the ice cream sundae either started with a cherry after church or a chocolate drizzle in defiance of Sunday blue laws.

Both towns claim the first scoop. Only one has the newspaper ad. The other? A historical marker.

📍 Scene 1: A Reverend, a Pharmacist, and a Cherry on Top – Ithaca, NY (1892)

On Sunday afternoon, April 3, 1892, in downtown Ithaca, Reverend John M. Scott of the Unitarian Church stopped by his usual post-service hangout: Platt & Colt’s Pharmacy. Owner Chester C. Platt, also church treasurer, was ready with a treat.

Instead of serving plain vanilla ice cream, Platt topped the bowls with cherry syrup and a candied cherry—an inspired moment of sweet spontaneity. The two men decided to name it for the day: the Cherry Sunday.

📜 Just two days later, on April 5, 1892, an ad for “Cherry Sunday” appeared in the Ithaca Daily Journal. It remains the earliest known written record of the modern ice cream sundae.

By May, “Strawberry Sundays” and “Chocolate Sundays” followed. By 1894, Platt attempted to trademark the name—prompting others to dodge legal trouble by spelling it: sundae.

🍫 Scene 2: Chocolate and a Nickel – Two Rivers, WI (1881?)

Two Rivers tells a different tale.

In 1881, a 10-year-old customer at Berners’ Soda Fountain supposedly asked owner Ed Berner for chocolate syrup on his vanilla ice cream. The result? A five-cent indulgence so popular it was initially sold only on Sundays—hence, the name.

This story is immortalized on a Wisconsin historical marker in Central Park, Two Rivers. The town has fiercely defended its claim, going so far as to bombard Ithaca’s mayor with protest postcards when it was declared Ithaca the sundae’s birthplace.

But here’s the sticky bit: Berner would’ve been just 16 or 17 in 1881. And his Chicago Tribune obituary says he created the sundae closer to 1899—years after Ithaca’s documented version.

🧁 Sundae? Sunday? Spelling, Science, and Sweet Tooths

So where did the spelling shift come from?

• Possibly from efforts to avoid religious objections to naming a dessert after the Sabbath

• Possibly to sidestep Platt’s trademark attempt in Ithaca

• Or maybe just smart marketing—“sundae” looks good on a sign

Meanwhile, back in the Midwest…

🍨 Midwestern Maybes: Evanston & Plainfield, IL

Evanston, Illinois passed blue laws in 1890 banning soda sales on Sundays. Confectioners got creative, serving syrupy ice cream without the soda—thus the "Sunday soda" or, as it evolved, the “sundae.”

And in Plainfield, a druggist named Charles Sonntag reportedly served a new concoction and named it after himself—"Sonntag" being German for "Sunday."

Coincidence? Clever branding? Theories abound.

🐄 Ivy League Ice Cream: Cornell’s Dairy Legacy

While we’re talking Ithaca—let’s not forget that Cornell University has been a dairy powerhouse since 1880, through its Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Cornell’s Dairy Plant was more than just a job for me—I had the chance to work there for several years, and even got to create my own flavor: Lemony Cremeney (shameless plug). It was a rich, lemony cream swirled with crushed lemon Oreo-style cookies.

Cornell’s ice cream isn’t just indulgent—it’s hyper-local. The milk comes directly from the university’s own herd, supporting Cornell’s ongoing efforts in research, education, and sustainable agriculture at the Cornell University Ruminant Center.

So not only did Ithaca give us the Cherry Sundae—it also helped shape America’s dairy science and its sweet tooth.

Quick fun fact: the original Cornell Dairy Building was located in the vicinity of what is now Goldwin Smith Hall.

🧠 Fun Fact Buffet

🍨 The Oxford English Dictionary cites Ithaca’s “Cherry Sunday” ad from April 5, 1892, as the first known printed reference to the modern ice cream sundae.

🐄 Penn State University’s Berkey Creamery, established in 1865, is one of the oldest university creameries in the U.S.—serving scoops long before many colleges even had dairy labs.

🧪 Iowa State University began formal dairy science education in 1880, marking the start of structured university-level dairy instruction in the Midwest.

🎓 University of Wisconsin-Madison opened what’s considered America’s first dedicated dairy school in 1891, led by John A. Craig—the nation’s first professor of animal husbandry.

📜 Many of these university dairy programs were made possible by the Morrill Act of 1862, which established land-grant colleges focused on agriculture, science, and the mechanical arts—laying the groundwork for America’s dairy infrastructure and academic legacy.

⚖️ Final Verdict?

Let’s call it what it is:

Two Rivers has the sign. Ithaca has the receipts.

And every small town with a soda fountain once had a hand in perfecting it.

In the end, the ice cream sundae isn’t just a dessert—it’s a cultural artifact. A bowl of local pride, topped with innovation, served cold with a cherry on top.

❤️ Enjoy this scoop of history?

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And tell me in the comments: Which team are you on—Team Ithaca, Team Two Rivers, or Team Just Give Me the Ice Cream?

#IceCream #Ithaca #TwoRivers #NationalIceCreamSundaeDay