Zesto Drive-In
Zesto Ice Cream was the subject of family folklore for us. My dad used to tell stories about stopping by the Zesto near his Ft. Wayne high school when we was running during cross country practice. In the ’90s, the Ft. Wayne Zesto began to expand further outside the immediate Ft. Wayne area. We stopped by one in Huntington after a great lunch at Nick’s (a ‘Calc hall of fame inductee for their amazing breaded tenderloin and breaded cheeseburger; I also noticed that Bon Appetit magazine had recommended Nick’s Sugar Creme pie as what to eat in Indiana in their May 2009 issue).
Traditional Creamy Cone
According to Wikipedia, the first Zesto opened in Evansville, IN in 1949. It used the Zest-O-Mat, a special ice cream freezer developed by L.A.M. Phelan. Apparently there are quite a few Zesto locations across the country, in places like Atlanta, Wahoo, NE, West Columbia, SC, New Albany, IN, Ft. Wayne, and more. It was a franchise in the 1940s, but built around the use of the Zest-O-Mat machine and an associated soft serve ice cream recipe that uses low fat cream. Many of these locations retain the feel of the 1940s/50s-era drive-in. According to a S.C. Zesto website, “The parent company, Zesto Products Dairy, Inc., closed in the early 50′s and each Zesto store became independently owned.” Since there wasn’t a central franchising organizations, the spread of Zesto has been quite slow and only within each original franchisee’s area. Many Zestos have been such long-standing parts of their community that residents think they’re the only ones with Zesto. I didn’t know that there were others outside of the Ft. Wayne area.
Zesto is a great spot for soft serve ice cream. I got a twist cone, a mix of chocolate and vanilla. The chocolate was the star and was rich and creamy without being overbearing, more on the mellow side of chocolate flavor. The ice cream itself is richer than the more familiar and ubiquitous Dairy Queen soft serve that is milk based.
Zesto ice cream is simple, classic, and amazing. There is really a reason why it’s a favorite ice cream in my family and really too bad that there aren’t any very close to Philadelphia.
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