Two American towns have been trading letters, legal threats and historical claims for over a century, and neither one is close to backing down. The argument is about who invented the ice cream sundae. On National Strawberry Sundae Day, with local berries at their July peak, it is the right moment to finally make one right.
Both origin stories share the same trigger. A 19th-century Blue Law banned soda sales on Sundays, and a soda fountain owner found a workaround instead of turning customers away.
Wisconsin says it happened in 1881
In 1881, a man named George Hallauer walked into Edward Berner’s soda fountain in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and asked for an ice cream soda. Berner could not sell soda that day, so he poured chocolate syrup over a dish of ice cream and handed it over instead. The treat sold for a nickel and caught on fast. Two Rivers now has an official Wisconsin Historical Marker to back up the claim.
New York says it happened in 1892
Ithaca, New York, tells a different version. On a Sunday in 1892, a minister stopped into Platt and Colt’s pharmacy and ordered ice cream. Chester Platt added cherry syrup and a candied cherry on a whim, and they named it for the day.
Platt later changed the spelling to “sundae,” widely attributed to avoiding offense among religious leaders. Ithaca points to a newspaper ad for a “Cherry Sunday” in the Ithaca Daily Journal dated April 5, 1892, the earliest written record anyone has found. The dispute has never been resolved.
The soda fountains that never modernized
A handful of American soda fountains kept the original format and never looked back. Lexington Candy Shop opened in Manhattan in 1925 and has been run by the same family for three generations. Every soda, float and egg cream is still mixed by hand at the original fountain.
Eddie’s Sweet Shop in Forest Hills, New York, takes it further. Owner Vito Citrano makes the ice cream, the hot fudge and most of the syrups from scratch. Customers eat from metal dishes that have been in the shop for nearly a century.
July is when the strawberry sundae actually works
Most of the year, a strawberry sundae is only as good as the berries available, which is usually not great. The grocery-store strawberry has been bred for shelf life and long-distance travel, not flavor. July changes that.
Strawberry season runs through mid-July across the Northeast and Upper Midwest, with U-pick fields in the northernmost states among the last to close. The berries right now are softer, deeper in color and significantly sweeter. A 2026 study found 62% of Americans indulge in a small, affordable treat at least once a month, with food and beverages leading all categories.
Making one at home takes about 10 minutes. Good vanilla ice cream, fresh local strawberries hulled and sliced with a little sugar to draw out the juice and real whipped cream if you have five minutes. The towns are still arguing, but the sundae is not waiting for them to settle it.
Mandy Applegate is the creator behind Splash of Taste and seven other high-profile food and travel blogs. She’s also the co-founder of Food Drink Life Inc., a unique and highly rewarding collaborative blogger project. Her articles appear frequently on major online news sites, and she always has her eyes open to spot the next big trend.