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Experiencing history tastes better with some ice cream
Around town
Friday, Aug. 14, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by LEAH L. JONES
Cheryl Watts, owner of the Ice Cream Factory & Café in Brandywine, shows off a Rock Fish & Criss Cross Fries meal.
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In the midst of summer's heat, what could be more enticing than sitting on a cool, shaded porch with an ice cream cone, sharing relaxed times with friends?
That's exactly the experience that Brandywine's Ice Cream Factory & Café offers, among other things: a pleasant, homey atmosphere, with food that is comforting, familiar and delicious.
"It's a very friendly place," said owner Cheryl Watts, who opened the restaurant in the late summer of 2003 with her late husband, David Watts. "Strangers say hello to strangers, friendships form right under my nose ... it brings out the best in people."
Indeed, ice cream is a difficult thing to be upset around — unless there's none left — and with 24 flavors and countless possible combinations, there's plenty to go around at this historic house.
Situated on a prominent corner along Brandywine Road, the Ice Cream Factory & Café was originally built around 1867 as a general store and post office, and through various modifications it was operated as such until the mid-20th century, when it was leased out to different folks as a church, a radio station, and an antique dealer among others.
When the couple purchased it in 2002, it was a "dilapidated rundown eyesore of a building that nobody thought anyone could do anything with," Watts said, though the Prince George's County Historic Preservation Commission named it a historic site in 1994.
Her husband took charge of renovations while preserving its nostalgic nature. Additional historic appeal comes from its location on the John Wilkes Booth assassination trail.
Diners can read about some of this history in brochures placed on the handful of tables inside, but what they really come for is to enjoy the homemade food.
Customer favorites include the crab cakes ($7.50 sandwich, $14.49 for a two-cake platter) — savory and flavorful, with lump crab meat — as well as the Angus beef burgers ($3.99), the steak and cheese sandwiches ($5.99), and the rockfish ($9.50), served in fried pieces with French fries, tartar sauce and a medium fountain drink.
The cream of crab soup, made from a house recipe like the crab cakes, runs at $3.85 for a cup, $7.50 for a pint and $13.95 for a quart. And the café's fries come in three styles: original, criss-cross and seasoned with Old Bay.
Daily specials, like buy-one-get-one-free crab cakes on Wednesdays, help to bring in customers for the café cuisine.
But in the end, it's all about the soft-serve, the old-fashioned frozen custard in two dozen flavors that can be custom-blended.
Flavors include everything from amaretto and apple pie to rum or Skittles. For chocolate, vanilla, or a mixture, cones or cups run $1.70 for "kiddie" size, $2.65 for medium and $3 for large.
The additional flavors add 40 cents each and cookies 'n cream adds 60 cents.
There is also a plethora of milkshakes ($3.55 medium, $4.25 large), malts ($4.15 medium, $4.85 large), floats ($3.50), smoothies ($4.15) sundaes ($4.25) and countless other
delicious ways of cooling down from the inside out on a hot summer's day.
"We tell people to come in hungry and stay for dessert," Watts said.
Ice Cream Factory & Café
13700 Old Brandywine Road, Brandywine. Phone: 301-782-3444. Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, April through October. Go to www.icecreamfactoryandcafe.com
