THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 14, 1996 TAG: 9606140557
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY WENDY GROSSMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 69 lines
Doumar's has a scoop for you. It's not chocolate, vanilla, strawberry or butter pecan.
The ice-cream and barbecue drive-in that's been a part of Norfolk for nearly a century has taken another dip into history.
On Sunday, The Missouri Historical Society will begin displaying one of the first ice-cream cone machines invented by Abraham Doumar. It will be exhibited along with other items from the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.
The Doumar family hopes to donate the cone maker to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., after its five-year stay in St. Louis.
The old machine spent the past couple of years in family patriarch Albert Doumar's garage.
``(It) was just about wore out,'' says Albert, wearing his trademark crisp bow tie and suspenders. ``The plates are worn out. It's been in use about 90 years.''
For the Doumar family, being a part of the exhibit is almost as good as one of their ``Ringos'' - ice cream sprinkled with cone chips.
``I think it's great,'' says Randy Windley, Albert Doumar's son-in-law. ``Any time a piece of history is displayed and it has the Doumar name on it, it's really neat and exciting.''
Back in 1904, Albert's Uncle Abraham was working as a salesman at the world's fair. After work one evening he bought a waffle for a penny. At a nearby stand he bought some ice cream.
Abraham then did something unique. He folded up the waffle and filled it.
And he invented the ice cream cone.
``It's the Middle Eastern way to make a sandwich,'' says Albert. (Abraham was an immigrant from Damascus, Syria.) ``Take a piece of pita bread, smear jelly on it and roll it up.''
Soon Abraham, calling his concoction ``A Cornucopia,'' began selling ice cream cones at the fair for 10 cents.
In 1905, he made the first ice cone machine. It was gas-fired and turned out four cones a minute.
He sold his cones up and down the East Coast, and he opened a stand at Ocean View Park in 1907. Doumar's moved inland to 20th Street and Monticello Avenue after being hit by a hurricane in 1933.
Doumar's legion of loyal customers, who come for still-warm handmade cones, needn't worry, Albert says. Uncle Abraham's original cone machine hasn't gone anywhere. It's still outside the front entrance. And it's working like new.
``You got the same ice cream cone made the same way,'' Albert says.
Almost every day Girl Scouts and tour groups come to watch cones being made. Most mornings at 9, Neal Windley, Randy's father, stands out front in a white apron and an orange ``I love Doumar's Cones'' cap making 400 cones.
After, three quick taps of his ladle on the first iron square, he closes the lid over the creamy dollop. His hands move quickly, dropping the batter of butter, sugar, flour and vanilla onto three other grills before rolling the wafers onto wood cone molds.
``We came 10 miles out of our way to get here,'' says Pete Edwards, holding his vanilla cone. ``This is the way ice cream used to be.'' ILLUSTRATION: HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot
Abraham Doumar's original ice cream cone machine, located outside
the drive-in's front entrance, still works. One of Doumar's other
machines, however, soon will be display in Missouri along with other
items from the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. It was there that Doumar
started it all.
BETH BERGMAN/The Virginian-Pilot
Albert Doumar, second from left, hands out ice cream cones to a tour
group. Such groups come almost every day to see cones made at the
Norfolk landmark. by CNB