Ice Cream Sundae/Chippewa Valley Museum Ice Cream Parlor

June Dairy Month means the time has returned for me to highlight dairy desserts for “Dessert Valley, Wisconsin.” Given the historical importance of dairy to this area, it seems appropriate that the first such post this year involves a place that deals with area history: the Chippewa Valley Museum. Inside is their Ice Cream Parlor, which — as you would expect — has an Eau Claire-area ice cream-related artifact. Also, they serve ice cream…like the ice cream sundae:

The soda fountain in the parlor is a marble edition once used in downtown Eau Claire, and later in Fall Creek, then donated to the museum. The rest of the interior has the sort of tables and chairs and decorations one would expect from the earlier part of the 20th century. Like the museum as a whole, it’s a good place to go back in time — with the bonus of actual ice cream to consume.

There were scoops and dishes of ice cream, plus sundaes. I went for the largest option: the 3-scoop sundae. The day I went with my daughter, they were still training for the season, so my sundae also involved some practice for the summer! The sundae is served in a long glass dish: three scoops of vanilla ice cream with whipped cream and either chocolate of strawberry sauce drizzled on top (I went with the strawberry), plus a maraschino cherry. It’s your classic ice cream sundae, served in a classic style. For a few minutes, you could ponder living just like someone from 1924 instead of 2024.

If you wanna get your nostalgic fill of ice cream while getting a history lesson, the Ice Cream Parlor is open this summer on Fridays and Saturdays from 1-5 p.m. Find one of their stools and pull up to the soda fountain, and imagine you just parked your Model T on Barstow to get a cool treat on a hot day in the late-’10s…the 1910s. Your car is different, but the marble is the same, and ice cream is always good.