Editor’s Note: This column was first published April 30, 2015.
The taste of a Dairy Zone chocolate malt — in my opinion — has no rival. The ice cream shop in the little wooden hut across the street from the large dairy cow statues of Anderson-Erickson is a mandatory summertime stop if you are an Eastsider. As a kid and teenager growing up in the blue collar neighborhoods of Des Moines, I was happy to oblige.
I don’t know the Dairy Zone recipe for the tasty treat, there might not be a big difference in its chocolate to malt mix ratio from other mom and pop frozen deserts, but to me there is nothing like it. The malt flavor is rich but does not overwhelm the chocolate. The drink is thick and seems to never end as it’s sipped through a straw.
After a full day at Teachout swimming pool, the Dairy Zone malt was a tradition which capped off every trip. Still wearing our swimming trunks, hair wet from the water and draped in a towel, my brothers and I loved crowding the window — barley able to see the counter to order from the East High School student dishing soft-serve on summer vacation. As a teen, it was cool to climb into my 1974 Ford Torino with friends and cruise through the drive-thru to get a cone, cheese curd basket or Dairy Zone’s version of the Dairy Queen Blizzard — the Tornado. No matter my age, I’ll always feel at home when I see the shop’s plaster ice cream cone-character smiling and waiving people into the tiny parking lot packed with cars on a hot summer night.
My girlfriend and I have taken our Dairy Zone malts — she opts for the blueberry shake — on strolls through the Iowa State Fair Grounds. The cold drinks sweeten the sights of workers preparing for August or the new sprouts in the ISU Discovery Garden.
Newtonians have had Cardinal Corner since 1956, those in Colfax can walk down to Weirick’s Pharmacy after school to visit the malt makers and soda jerks. In Monroe it’s Jersey Freeze and Prairie City it’s Goldie’s. I love the history each ice cream haunt brings to its town. But for me, the Dairy Zone chocolate malt will always bring me back to Eastside in the summertime.