Near the Ohio Erie Canal in Millersport, Ohio, step into a world of nostalgia all around when walking up to the large white house known as Weldon’s Ice Cream Factory! With a nice wood front porch on the outside and upon entering, old yellow wooden booths and a jukebox to the side nearby, a soda shop bar with stools straight ahead, you know you are in for a treat. Last Saturday, we visited Weldon’s on a hot summer day and selected their popular Hot Apple Dumpling Sundae with Weldon’s vanilla ice cream , caramel, whipped cream, nuts, and a cherry on top. Upon request, also topped with Biscoff cookie crumble. We also chose a vanilla milkshake. Both were delicious! Weldon’s vanilla ice cream is dense and creamy!

Impressively, Weldon’s is open from 11 am-10 pm every day of the week at their historic seasonal site house during March-October. Meeting the current owner and operator, David Pierce, who is the grandson of Rudy Weldon, who started the business in 1930, we learn from David as he works the soda shop bar. This has been a family business through the years. Pierce still makes the ice cream every day. We highly recommend visiting this gem of an ice cream factory with its old grand hotel exterior (before 1930, the building was a hotel) and charming soda shop interior. There are not many places like this anymore and the old-fashioned ice cream cannot be beat.

Conveniently located on the historic U.S. Route 40 (National Road) in Hebron, Ohio, Clay’s Cafe was bustling with customers of all ages on a Friday summer evening. We signed in to wait for a seat as did many other guests. While patiently waiting to be seated, we learned that Clay’s Cafe started in 1934 and one of the current owners used to work in the cafe when he was a teenager. After observing the cafe’s history on the walls decorated with photographs, news articles, and memorabilia, we ended up sitting in a booth by a window and directly across from the soda shop bar and kitchen, which enabled us to watch more customers arrive as well as the staff prepare many pizzas, subs, etc. Upon looking over our menus and the hanging dessert menu above the ice cream (Hershey’s ice cream) bar , we decided to share a small classic stromboli covered in garlic butter, which includes pepperoni, sausage, mozzarella cheese, and some very tasty tomato dipping sauce, and a 10” pizza with sausage, pepperoni, green peppers, banana peppers, and onions; the meat and vegetables were a perfect combination and the veggies were oh, so fresh! We appreciated how the pizza from this mom-and-pop restaurant had a healthier salt level and was not covered in grease, which enabled us to taste all the flavors with every slice.

Believe it or not, we had room for dessert, but we decided to each get our own. Our choices were hot fudge cake: a slice of homemade Texas sheet cake, a scoop of French vanilla ice cream, and topped with hot fudge and whipped cream. After sharing my delight over the dessert, as not many places serve this option and I used to live in Texas for years where it was most popular, one of the staff members informed us that the recipe for the Texas sheet cake they use is really old. I really enjoyed eating the delicious dessert once again. A one-dip French vanilla turtle sundae drizzled with hot fudge and caramel, and lastly, topped with pecans and a maraschino cherry was my husband’s dessert choice. We were quite pleased with our Friday night meal and gladly took the leftovers home. “Sherman’s Fries” (check out the story of Sherman and his fries on Clay’s Cafe’s website) is a side option on the menu we plan to try on our next visit.