Like a slumbering beast, Rainbow Cone has awakened.
The Original Rainbow Cone, a legendary South Side Chicago treat, took to Facebook Tuesday after months of hibernation to announce this season's opening date--and it's just around the corner.
The Beverly shop will open its doors for the season at noon March 6 to sell the iconic cone--a stack of chocolate, strawberry, Palmer House (a mixture of vanilla, cherries and walnuts) and pistachio ice cream with orange sherbet on top. The combo has remained unchanged since 1926. The shop will also host a grand opening March 9, with the first 100 customers receiving a free T-shirt, which General Manager Michelle Desnoyer said is rare.
"We're just doing the same thing people in Beverly and around Chicago have always come to us for," Desnoyer said, adding gift cards will also be raffled off opening day. Rainbow Cone is also planning to return to Taste of Chicago again, as well as make its third appearance at Lollapalooza.
Desnoyer estimates that the shop will sell at least 500 cones on opening day, as well as about 150 quarts of the stacked ice cream in prepackaged containers. In a given year, Rainbow Cone serves about 100,000 cones out of its shop, and about 15,000 at the Taste of Chicago.
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