BAR NONE!
By Pam Reinig
Not to take anything away from the cone, malt or sundae but the shake is still the top dairy treat with fair-goers, outselling other options more than two to one. That's the scoop from Tammy Muller, treasurer of the Clayton County Dairy Promotions Board. The group has sold ice cream at the county fair for more than three decades.
"We do a good business with cones and hot fudge sundaes but shakes are still number one," Muller said. "Last year, we served about 6,000 compared to 2,500 cones." The group also sells milk in single-serving portions.
The Dairy Bar made its first fair appearance in 1976, operating out of a single-stall garage that had been used the previous year in a fair display. The garage was originally given to the Fair Board who, in turn, gave it to the Dairy Promotions Committee with the provision that the committee could use the structure as long as they wanted - as long as they used it to sell ice cream.
The first Dairy Bar was pretty rustic, according to a history compiled by Virginia Pate. Tables from the county extension office were hauled in and used as counters. A floor was fashioned out of sheets of plywood. Malts and shakes were made in non-commercial blenders, which took more time than the shake machines now used. The all-volunteer staff was small with only four or five persons covering each of three shifts.
"We had a vat for cleaning blenders, which we filled with a garden hose," Pate wrote. "The vats drained into a five-gallon pail and when that got full someone had to carry it to the milk house and dump it down the drain."
Pate also recalled a time when a volunteer tried to hurry the shake-making process by pushing ice cream to the bottom of a blender with a wooden spoon. The spoon caught on the blender's blades, which sent ice cream flying all over the inside of the building.
"We thought it was quite funny at the time but it was a real mess to clean up," Pate said.
The Dairy Promotion Committee now sells hand-dipped ice cream treats from a tidy white building decorated with larger-than-life cutouts of ice cream cones. The building, which was finished in August 1997, is set on a cement slab that extends to an adjacent seating area that's shaded by the structure's deep overhang. It's equipped with four freezers, four milk dispensers, one refrigerator and six shake machines. A volunteer force of over 120 workers is annually recruited to serve the ever-growing crowds.
In 2009, the Dairy Promotions Committee used a record 380 gallons of milk and more than 1,000 gallons of ice cream. They hope to top that record this year.
Posted on July 28, 2010
