The Flavor Isle is an independent restaurant and ice cream stand almost exactly in the middle of Smiths Grove on Main Street. It's across the street from the Grove's only Bed and Breakfast and less than 50 yards from the post office.
The small counter service fast food place serves burgers, fries, hot dogs, grilled chicken sandwiches and other common fast food items. On the ice cream side of their menu they offer soft serve cones, milkshakes, malts, and a variety of sundaes.
Today the business celebrated it's 50th anniversary. To mark the occasion they rolled back their prices to what they were in 1964. According to their Facebook page they offered 15 cent hot dogs and 25 cent ice cream cones. They also had live entertainment, a banjo player.
As you might guess the roll back made the place very popular. Although I didn't go there to get anything myself I did take a picture of the line. I've never seen that many people at the window over the course of a week much less a single day.
Flavor Isle is a very popular place for locals and tourists alike here in "The Grove". It has to be to have continued to stay in business with 3 fast food chain restaurants just 1/2 a mile away.
The only thing I like about the food the Flavor Isle is the convenience. If I want a soft serve cone and don't want to go into Bowling Green to get it I go to the Flavor Isle. To me their food is nothing special. I've eaten from there less than a half a dozen times in the 15 years I've been here in Kentucky.
My favorite, but at the same time worst, experience at the Flavor Isle happened in the Spring of 2012. One Sunday (it might have been Easter Sunday but I'm not sure) after a family dinner at our house we decided for desert we wanted sundaes from Flavor Isle.
So my daughters-in-law and I headed to the restaurant. We ordered a variety of sundaes, one for each adult back at the house.
When I got my hot fudge sundae I noticed that there was no whipped cream, nuts or cherry on it. I pointed this out to the counter attendant who had just taken my money.
"If you want those they cost extra." I thought that those things were the difference between a desert being just ice cream with a flavored topping poured over it and it being a sundae.
Completely confused but still wanting my "extras" I paid the price. I started expressing my amazement in a sarcastic way to Heather and Brandi. I wondered out loud if the napkins were free or did I have to pay for them too?
By the time we headed home we were laughing and giggling about the absurdity of the whole situation. To this day all I have to do is mention Flavor Isle in front of the girls and the smiles and jokes start up once again. It's one of my favorite memories of time spent with my daughters-in-law.
So "Happy Anniversary" to the Flavor Isle. Fifty years in business in a small town like Smiths Grove is really something to be proud of.
But its not the convenient availability of their food and ice cream or even their "bait & switch" pricing that makes The Flavor Isle special place to me.
I'll tell what makes it so significant to me and why in tomorrow's post.
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