USA Today Names Old Country Store Ice Cream Parlor One of Top 50 in America
(Jackson , TN) USA Today has named the Old Country Store's Ice Cream Parlor in Casey Jones Village one of the top 50 in the nation. Released in the Friday, August 27th, 2010 issue of USA Today , the nation’s largest circulation newspaper, the publication included the Old Country Store in a listing of the top 50 ice cream parlors in the country with one representing each state and the District of Columbia.
Brooks Shaw & Son Old Country Store has been serving ice cream since it opened in 1965. When the company developed Casey Jones Village in 1978 it took on a whole new life with an authentically recreated 1890's ice cream parlor complete with Victorian ceiling fans and a beautiful tin ceiling. The centerpiece of the parlor is a very rare soda fountain made in 1893 and one of only 75 like it ever made. Reportedly only three are still in existence today. The Soda Fountain was purchased by Old Country Store founder Brooks Shaw from a black mercantile store in Okalona, Mississippi in the early 1960's and became the centerpiece for the design of the entire Old Country Store that visitors know today.
The 1890’s ice cream parlor serves classic old fashioned ice cream treats like those found in the soda fountains and drugstores around the late 19th century American South such as milkshakes, sundaes, sodas, banana splits, malts and root beer floats in addition to individual ice cream scoops on sugar cones and homemade waffle cones. The Old Country Store serves Turner Dairy ice cream, a regional dairy company with an office in Jackson, Tennessee. Turner Dairy is the leading manufacturer and distributor of dairy products in the Tennessee delta region. The Coca-Cola Bottling Company provides soft drinks and fountain service. Both companies have served the Old Country Store for 45 years.
The parlor is also known for a variety of flavors of homemade fudge and homemade pies including the Southern chess pie recipe of co-founder Anne Shaw. Nostalgic long neck bottled soft drinks in over 20 hard to find flavors, including sarsaparilla, cream sodas and regional favorites like Dr. Enuff and NuGrape, are iced down daily in an antique Coca-Cola box. There are also very rare antique Coca-Cola advertising signs adorning the red velvet walls. Old Country Store CEO Clark Shaw said, "Being recognized as one of the top 50 ice cream parlors in America is a tremendous honor for our company. We are proud to serve local products and homemade treats and our wonderful staff works hard serving up a bit of old fashioned nostalgia for our guests. We love taking folks down memory lane."
Brooks Shaw & Son's Old Country Store is located at 56 Casey Jones Lane in Jackson , Tennessee. The Old Country Store also has an award winning Southern restaurant, a gift shoppe and ”To Go” take out surrounded by thousands of original Southern country store antiques. In 2009 the 1925 Wellwood country store where founder Brooks Shaw worked as a young boy was relocated and restored here, as well as an 8,000 square Train Station addition to the historic Casey Jones Home and Railroad Museum. Just this month the company relocated a two story historic Southern antebellum home to the Village that was built in 1837.
Casey Jones Village is located on I-40 exit 80A nearly midpoint between Memphis and Nashville and is one on Tennessee’s Top 10 most visited travel attractions, according to the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development.
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