Here's the scoop on 7 great parlors

July 23, 2008

BETHLEHEM DAIRY STORE

(THE CUP)

1430 Linden St.

Bethlehem

610-691-8422

2 CAMPUS SQUARE

New and Morton streets

Bethlehem

Phone: 610-865-4360

Price for small cup: $2.50

The Bethlehem Dairy Store has been a city institution since the 1930s. The shop also has a few other names: ''The Cup,'' because of its original shape as a large milkshake cup; and ''Mowrer's,'' in honor of the longtime ownership by the Mowrer family.

''I am a very big proponent of community and a sense of community,'' says William Burkhardt, co-owner of The Bethlehem Dairy Store and former principal of Liberty High School. ''This has been a big part of that. If you stood here on a summer night, you'd see everyone that lives in town.''

As a high school student in 1965, Burkhardt began working at the Bethlehem Dairy Store. He later attended Moravian College and Lehigh University and stayed on with the shop.

About 20 years ago, Burkhardt and his partner Frederick Buckenmeyer bought the shop. In late August 2002, the two partners opened an additional location on the campus of Lehigh University, in the Campus Square retail area.

So what's the key to the store's longevity? Sure, it may be the fact that it's been such an integral part of the community. But it's probably more about the ice cream.

''We always have given a good product at a fair price,'' Burkhardt says. ''People know what they are going to get.''

The shop has more than 40 flavors of homemade, hand-dipped hard ice cream. Vanilla is the biggest seller, and it's also the central base for milkshakes and sundaes. It is silky smooth with lovely flecks of vanilla bean.

The shop also sells favorite flavors such as cookie dough, cookies and cream, strawberry and chocolate fudge brownie. There are seasonal favorites, too, such as egg nog and pumpkin cheesecake.

In addition to its hard ice cream, it also has soft ice cream in six flavors -- including vanilla, chocolate, black raspberry and peach.

Burkhardt says the big difference with their ice cream is that once it is made, it is immediately flash-frozen to minus 20 degrees. Faster freezing means less time for the ice cream to form ice crystals and it stays creamier.