The Franklin Fountain

You’ll need something rewarding for surviving the Old City gauntlet of tripping over cobblestone streets and Betsy Ross teaching you how to churn butter.  That’s where The Franklin Fountain comes in. The throwback ice cream parlor and soda fountain spot has antique fixtures like old hanging lamps and cashiers and serves scoops of things like cotton candy, pistachio, and peanut butter. If you take something to go, it will come in a Chinese takeout container–which you’ll appreciate on a sunny day when you don’t have streams of ice cream running down your hand from a cone. The most popular flavor here is Hydrox, which is a velvety cookies and cream from the early 1900s. Each spoonful is velvety and it’s easily the tastiest history lesson you’ll get in that neighborhood.