Sandy's Frozen Whip sits on an unassuming corner directly north of Lakeshore Boulevard in Cleveland's North Collinwood neighborhood, the same place it's been for decades. There, local teenagers take orders from a small window cut from the diminutive spot's blue and white facade, just right of the handwritten menu board, an anachronistic touch on its own. Cartoon renderings of dachshunds dot the exterior walls, playfully advertising Sandy's footlongs and chili, complemented by a rotating assortment of flags, pinwheels and humble signage. Throughout the space, a cast of child-size dolls assume frozen, mischievous poses to the confused delight – or terror – of visitors. Music plays from an unremarkable boombox and filters among cerulean picnic tables and garden benches that attract a crowd as diverse as the community that surrounds the seasonal treat stop. It's honest, inexpensive, inviting and a rarity. They simply don't make places quite like Sandy's anymore.
While a certain Jeni's ice creams are indeed splendid, and there are a number of gelaterias to be found around Northeast Ohio these days, nothing carries the sweet summer cache quite like a soft-serve vanilla cone. Like Sandy's, it's classic, and it's been a staple of warm weather bliss for a reason. Unlike its less forgivingly frozen counterparts, soft-serve may be enjoyed immediately with bites or licks – the latter a carefully cultivated skill set, elaborating on the ice cream's unique architectural qualities to create one-off towering turrets of chilling sweetness. It makes even the proverbial ice cream "man" feel like a kid again.
The best soft-serve cone in the world may be found in Dublin, Ireland, from another decades-old ice cream institution: Teddy's. There, much like Sandy's, it occupies an unassuming nook immediately off a main road, with small window for ice cream orders and generations of return customers. It is a stone's throw from the Dún Laoghaire pier, where when the sun beams and the air is warm, a cool breeze carries a maritime melange of smells, sounds and faint spray over a sparkling sea that's awash in fond memories. It is there that I have traversed the split levels of the granite East Pier – a popular pedestrian promenade with picturesque coastal vantages and seafaring scenery – with generations of my own kin. It's possibly my favorite place on Earth, which makes my extreme bias in favor of Teddy's inevitable. The soft, cool, spiraling soft-serve in a cone is stuck with a Cadbury Flake bar to create the famous "99," the etymology of which remains a mystery. Although rather ubiquitous across the pond, the Teddy's version, and the manner in which its delicious attributes are so closely intertwined with the nearby topography and my reminiscence, make it extraordinarily evocative, each taste a time capsule, unusually enrapturing.
I only discovered Sandy's last summer, as I became part of a new neighborhood. I'm glad I did. Numerous friends relayed stories of growing up with Sandy's, and the similar affections they had for it as I did Teddy's. One taste of their vanilla soft-serve cone, and I was a kid again. I immediately thought of Teddy's, of my family, of rosy summer afternoons. I unknowingly set the stage for new emotional keepsakes that I'll carry for a lifetime. I've also started bringing my own Flake bars. After all, part of being truly at home is styling things to your tastes.
Sandy's Frozen Whip is located at 17635 Lake Shore Blvd., Cleveland.
