Ye Ole Fashioned Ice Cream & Sandwich Cafe

Although the South has a tremendous sweet tooth, low dairy consciousness obviates it as an ice cream lode. While I wouldn’t match Ye Ole’s product with the heavy hitters of the North, this charming little sweet shop is worth a stop if you’re hankering for a cup, a cone, or a hot fudge sundae along Route 17 north of Charleston. (There are several other locations in the area.) Thirty-six flavors of ice cream are available; we tasted just one, advertised on a sign outside the restaurant: banana pudding. The very idea of it was enough to cause the car’s steering wheel to automatically turn and veer into the parking lot. As fans of the tenderest dessert, we’d probably order banana pudding-flavored meat loaf if we saw it on a menu; and the goodness of ice cream veined with streaks of vanilla wafer and banana slices is pretty much inarguable.

One taste confirmed its virtue, but also suggested that perhaps the ice cream might be even better as the foundation for a hot fudge sundae. So Whole Hog was the order of the day; and sure enough, the whipped topping that crowned the fudge added another banana pudding-like element to the impossible-to-stop-eating dessert.

Ye Ole’s soda fountain menu is huge, including shakes and malts, sodas, and sundaes all the way up to Pig’s Trough Double Banana Splits (“served with a dill pickle for expectant mothers”). Available savories include hamburgers, all-beef hot dogs, and impressive-sounding sandwiches, including fried, thick-sliced bologna and a BLT that promises ten slices of bacon.