Newport: Memory of Childhood

To most the city of Newport, Rhode Island, is associated with the Gilded Age mansions lining Ocean Avenue and the Cliff Walk.

For me it's the Awful Awful.

The Awful Awful is a thick milkshake, but instead of being made from ice cream, milk and syrup, most of its dairy content comes from ice milk. It originated at Bond's, a northern New Jersey ice cream chain with an outpost in my home town, Elizabeth. It got it's name because it's "Awful Big, Awful Good". Drink three and get your name inscribed on the wall, plus a fourth for free.

Two ice cream chains in New England took notice of the thick shake and bought rights to market it under the Awful Awful name anywhere but in Bond's home territory of the Garden State. But when one of them starting expanding, not being able to enter the New Jersey market was a major impediment, so they changed the name to Fribble. That's what the chain -- Friendly's -- continues to call its shake, though it's no longer made with ice milk. For that, you have to turn to the other ice cream chain, Newport Creamery, where they still make it to the original recipe.

So on Sunday I walked 20 minutes up from the touristy downtown of Newport, filled with Guicci and Banana Republic and all the other chains catering to cruise ships customers and wannabe yacht owners to the nearest Newport Creamy and satisfied my childhood memory.

For more detail on the Awful Awful history, read this New England Today article.

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