REVIEW

We prefer driving trips to flying trips. It’s true that the “getting there” eats into the “being there” time, but we are diehard proponents of the old saying, “Getting there is half the fun.” We enjoy the driving itself just fine but we take it slow, stopping often along the way wherever and whenever we please. Sometimes we stop for local sights, or a state park, or a bit of local history. Most of the time, though, we stop for food.

Our root beer float had so much vanilla soft serve that we needed a second can of root beer to finish it off.

There are only so many meals in a day, but we don’t let that stop us. We especially enjoy brewpubs and ice cream stands (brewpubs almost always carry a craft root beer, often made in-house, useful if you’re driving). We can’t always depend on finding a brewpub wherever we want to stop but, if it’s summer, there’s almost always a local ice cream stand within 15 minutes of wherever we are, at least in the Northeast.

The Muddy Monkey sundae is a particular favorite at Annie’s.

Annie’s Ice Cream, in Jim Thorpe, is perfectly situated for a drive from Upstate New York to New Jersey. There’s little to distinguish this seasonal ice cream stand from hundreds of others, but, as they say, that’s a feature, not a bug. Annie’s is not intended as a destination. They serve the people of, and visitors to, Jim Thorpe, and they do it well.

There’s no indoor seating at Annie’s. Place your order at the window and take it to one of the picnic tables, or your car.

Annie’s does not make their own hard ice cream. We don’t know for sure but we think it comes from Manning Farm, about 60 miles north of here. They also do soft serve, Italian ices, frozen yogurt, and of course, sundaes, floats, and shakes, and a thing they call gelatti, which combines soft serve and Italian ice (we believe that was invented at the Rita’s Italian Ice chain a couple of decades ago. It seems to still be mostly a Pennsylvania/New Jersey thing but we’ve noticed that kind of gelati showing up more and more around the country.) The non-dessert menu is limited to soft pretzels and hot dogs, with chili if you like.

We especially appreciate Annie’s long sundae roster, which covers pretty much anything you might want and adds a few concoctions of her own, like the Fluffernutter, S’more, Sweet 16, Irish, Muddy Monkey, or Anna Leigh.

There’s no indoor seating at Annie’s; there a few picnic tables, or enjoy your cone in the time-honored way — in your car. Annie’s is seasonal: they usually are open by April, and close toward the end of September. As we’ve already indicated, we don’t recommend going far out of your way for Annie’s, but if you find yourself in the area one summer, or are barreling along I-476 in Pennsylvania, and have a hankering for something sweet, do as we do and make a pit stop in Jim Thorpe.

LAF TRAK: 

FOOD: 

BEST THING TO EAT: Peanut butter sundae