The Cone

When we were planning our recent road trip, my friend JMP casually mentioned that we should try to hunt down an ice-cream-shaped ice cream stand to add to our itinerary. I replied "oh, I already did," and sent her information for The Cone, located in Tylersville, Ohio (a suburb northeast of Cincinnati).

The Cone is a Twistee-Treat-style ice cream stand, like the Twist o' the Mist in Niagara Falls or the two I visited back in October in Massillon, Ohio. The Cone is the first orange-and-white color scheme I've seen on these buildings, and I love how infinitely customizable they are. We saw a lot of people ordering the orange and white twist cone, which must be their specialty. I definitely would have ordered it just for the novelty factor, but orange ice cream sounds horrible to me, so I had a root beer float which was excellent.

They had garbage cans shaped like ice cream cones, a water fountain shaped like a lion AND a pressed penny machine, which is the holy grail of any roadside stop, in my opinion. As if the main building wasn't charming enough, they also had a few "Mobile Cones," topped with sprinkles and I can't think of anything cuter to catch cruising around town.

Twist o' the Mist

As part of our recent Buffalo trip, we decided to spend a day exploring Niagara Falls. Niagara, NY is very close to Buffalo—I'd been to the Canadian side many times as a kid, but never saw much of the American side. There were a few kitschy things on the American side that I wanted to check out so I was content to not cross the border this time (we'll be back!). 

Top of my list was the Twist o' the Mist, an ice-cream-shaped ice cream stand. I've been obsessed with novelty architecture as long as I can remember. Buildings that are shaped like what they contain/sell make me so very happy. I used to live within a few minutes of three of these ice cream-shaped buildings, officially called Twistee Treats. I visited two of them on a return trip to Ohio last year, and I've been eager to find more since.

I love puns and clever names almost as much as novelty architecture, so of course I love the Twist o' the Mist play on the "Maid of the Mist." We weren't quite at the dessert portion of our day yet, so we sadly didn't patronize the Twist, but the proclamation that they have 56 Flavors really intrigues me. It seems excessive, but so does an entire building shaped like an ice cream cone, so I guess it's just perfect.

Twistee Treat

When my friend Katie told me that she would be getting married about five minutes from where I used to live in Massillon, Ohio, Jim and I started planning a roadtrip. He'd never really been to Ohio before, and I was eager to revisit a few spots that I took for granted when they were part of my every day commute. I was particularly excited to see the two Twistee Treats that are a few minutes apart and just down the road from the last place I lived in Ohio.

According to Roadside Architecture, Twistee Treats are "28 feet tall and 20 feet wide fiberglass ice cream cones topped with cherries. The design was created by Robert G. "Skip" Skinner who built the first location in North Fort Myers in 1982. The buildings were produced in Cape Coral, FL. They were made from 19 pieces of fiberglass and assembled on-site. By 1986, there were 30 locations, all of them in Florida. It is believed that about 90 of these buildings were produced over the years. About half of them have been demolished."

Chubby's is definitely my favorite, and as far as I can tell one of the nicest ones that still exist. The cherry, fudge, raised lettering and hand-painted signage really bring it to the next level. While we were creeping on it, the owner actually pulled up to collect her planters. We thought she was going to question why we were creeping on her obviously closed business, but instead she apologized that they had just recently closed for the season. She also remarked "there's no doubt what we sell," which is what I love about novelty architecture. Is there anything more charming than getting ice cream from a building shaped like an ice cream cone? Nope.

The other location is more sparse than Chubby's, but any building shaped like what it sells is perfect in my book. I do love the matching umbrellas, and this Twistee Treat gets the distinction of being the only one that I've actually patronized. We went through the drive-thru once and I got a chocolate-dipped cone that was a very delicious but hazardous choice.

There is another Twistee Treat quite close to these two, but it's nearly identical to the pink one and was slightly out of our way so we didn't get to it. After browsing the #twisteetreat hashtag on Instagram and seeing one for sale, Jim and I promptly developed a fantasy of buying one, plopping it in a New York park à la Shake Shake and retiring as millionaires—with a lifetime supply of ice cream that looks exactly like the building in which it was made.