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By CategoryThe Little Ice Cream Stand That Lasted
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The little ice cream stand that lastedA celebration of 60 years in one spot, two tickets to Daytona 500 the prize!
2006-01-09
Article Written by: Charles Griffin
The Flamingo is my favorite ice cream parlor in the whole world. There are many reasons, foremost of them because it is the first ice cream place in my earliest memories that my mother brought me to for a cone back in 1947 or ’48 when she lived in the trailer park across the way and worked down the street at the Half-Orange drive-in restaurant.
Yes, it’s been around that long, through a chain of owners, in the same location at 559 North Beach Street in Daytona Beach since 1946. The current owner is Fay Mayo. With her daughter, Sheryl Sweeney, as her helper, the two women mix and make the ice cream, using some of the same recipes that the shop started with, modified only by taste, experience, availability of basic ingredients and what the public wanted.
Currently the shop offers an average of 22 flavors in ice cream and sherbets. It has a soda fountain and makes treats the old-fashioned way. “The Coca-Cola representative said we have the oldest original, still operating, soda fountain in the region,” said Mayo.
Many other Daytona residents love the Flamingo as well. Bill France, Jr. is a regular customer and is providing the shop with a spectacular grand prize for the 60th anniversary celebration that began Monday January 9 and runs through Jan. 14. The winner will get two tickets to the Daytona 2006 500 race.
Mayo said the shop will be having prize giveaways all week long, with daily lunch specials, hot dog and soft drink for $1.00 and a baby cone of ice cream with each purchase. In order to have a chance to win a prize, all a customer has to do is fill out a ticket and place in a jar on the counter top.
On Saturday, Jan 14, the shop will have live music between 1 and 3 p.m. and the grand prize will be awarded to some lucky adult, according to Mayo.
“We have the best customers and neighbors in the world, even if we are in the worst location,” said Mayo, echoing a framed headlined news article hanging on the wall. Although the shop is threatened with extinction because of city redevelopment plans, the automobile shops and commercial businesses, even the Outlaws Motorcycle Club just down the street have long been supporters and friends of the ice cream parlor.
According to Mayo, when the business sign was damaged during the latest rash of hurricanes, Lloyd Buick-Cadillac’s repair shop fixed the sign. During the two annual Biker events, the Outlaws members from here and around the country come in for banana splits, “although I have resisted their urging me to make a beer ice cream,” she said.
“We are a family tradition in the city,” said Sweeney. There are pictures on the wall showing the shop as it looked in 1948—as I remember it—with two windows through which customers were served. One of the boys hanging out the window is one of the Hall family, the founders of the Flamingo.
“The Smiths were managers and possibly owners for a while, as best we know,” said Mayo. “They were followed by Sergio and Lea (also known as Nelly) Weissenberger for several years until their daughter-in-law took it over.
That was Debi Diaz and we bought from her.”
The future for the shop is unclear. North Beach Street has always been more a commercial business and automotive shop area. The redevelopment plans call for condos and upscale businesses like the new yacht club and Caribbean Jack’s to take over.
“We hope to be a part of that future even if it means being in a new building,” said Mayo. “We are losing some of our old customers, but we see new ones coming in all the time. In fact, we get people from all over the country coming in and telling us that we are famous—that they were told if you go to Daytona Beach, you have to find the Flamingo and have some ice cream.”
Not a bad idea. Perhaps you, dear reader and browser, should go and do the same before fate and the redevelopment commission does away with another Daytona landmark.
The Flamingo is open at 10 a.m. six days a week and closes around 5 p.m. You can call 386-255-8090 for information or a lunch order. They take faxes at 386-255-6268.
More information about Flamingo Homemade Ice Cream
