Free Book Friday: Summer Arrives Along with Four Seas Ice Cream
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An employee making an ice cream soda, 1964. Courtesy of the Warren family.
Happy Free Book Friday, everybody!
Today’s giveaway kicks off a summer of cold treats from the Cape’s oldest and most storied ice cream shop. We’re especially excited about this freebie because of its signature ice cream recipes (including The Kennedys’ Favorite Fresh Peach Ice Cream)!
Comment at the end of this blog post for your chance to win Four Seas Ice Cream: Sailing Through the Sweet History of Cape Cod’s Favorite Ice Cream Parlor by Heather
M. Wysocki (entries must be submitted by the end of Memorial Day
weekend–Monday, May 28, at 12:00 a.m. EST), and be sure to enjoy this excerpt too!
More about the book
Before
becoming Four Seas Ice Cream, 360 South Main Street in Centerville was
home to a blacksmith’s shop run by T. Kelly Jr. of Centerville. His shop
moved down the road in 1912, and a new building was built shortly
after. Courtesy of the Warren family.
Cape Cod is home to some of the country’s most beautiful beaches—and some of its most delectable ice cream.
The Cape’s earliest ice cream store has
been churning its homemade concoction since 1934, when W. Wells Watson
came to Centerville and transformed a tiny blacksmith shop into an ice
cream parlor.
For the last fifty years, this tradition
has been preserved by author Heather Wysocki’s family. They combine
original recipes and quality ingredients for that same old-fashioned
flavor.
Owner Richard Warren makes ice cream with an employee, 1970s. Courtesy of the Warren family.
Four
Seas in its early years under W. Wells Watson. Watson would frequently
run out of flavors because he only made a few gallons at a time.
Courtesy of the Warren family.
Wysocki takes readers on a sweet
behind-the-scenes tour through the sights—and tastes—that have kept
loyal Four Seas fans coming back year after year, explaining the charm
of Four Seas in her introduction:
Gelato. Sorbetto. Sprinkles and candies and crumbles.Four Seas does not do these things. Four Seas does not make trendy flavors or follow the low-fat craze. There are no sprinkles on the ice cream cones, no cookies in the ice cream sundaes, no lettuce or tomato on the fresh lobster salad sandwiches. But for over seventy-seven years, thousands of families and visitors to the seaside Cape Cod town of Centerville have flocked to the store and stood in line for hours for exactly that simplicity.[...] While fresh coats of paint have been added and new employees have scooped, the ice cream and the feeling customers have when they bite into a cone hasn’t changed—and never will. Ask anyone associated with Four Seas—from customers to neighbors to the former employees whose children now yearn to work there—and you’ll hear a story of old-fashioned family values, a commitment to quality and a deep love of community.There are no pints with the owners’ faces on them, no national franchises and no complicated dishes. But there are ice cream cones, smiling children with sandy toes and decades of knowledge about good ice cream, good service and good summers by the sea.
A
classic Four Seas banana split—homemade vanilla, chocolate and
strawberry ice creams with hot fudge, pineapple and strawberry toppings.
Photo by the author.
