Legend/Roadside Ice Cream & Diner
I needed to have that dessert again. The time of year was making it happen: the transition from summer to autumn, the beginning of college football…and a cherry Blizzard I had on the way back from the first college football game I covered for my college radio station. This was early September of 1997, on the way back from St. Olaf College, having done a bit of sideline reporting for the Luther College radio station covering the football game between the two schools. We stopped at a DQ, I got that Blizzard (expensed to the station — this became a sneaky good perk during my years broadcasting games as a student) — and it went down as one of my fave desserts of all time. I don’t quite know why that one was made so well, but it was a great cap to a warm, sunny day that also was my first-ever day of a radio career that’s still going as I type this blog.
What’s a good way to get something so similarly awesome? And, how to do it locally? I figured Roadside Ice Cream & Diner would come through in a “Legendary” manner, and they did:
You probably already know the rep of their gargantuan ice cream treats; what they call the Legend (you may recall that they used to be part of Dairy Queen, and now do their own thing with a lot of similar options) is their take on the Blizzard, with inches of ice cream above the cup rim. I asked at the counter if they could make a Legend with cherries, and they did just that. Lots of soft serve ice cream, bits of cherries throughout; as I waited for the breakfast bowl my wife ordered to go, I dove in and got a bit of a nostalgia trip some 27 years into the past. It helped that the day I went to Roadside was another warm, sunny September day — the only difference being that it was a Friday instead of a college football Saturday.
You probably will find something nostalgic — and lots of it — at Roadside. Got a certain summery treat you recall from your younger days? Odds are good that you’ll find something along those lines when you go there. Arguably the best part? You’ll have so much, you can save some to continue your reminiscence for yet another day — a living history, if you will.