Tin Roof Sundae
The “tin roof sundae” usually contains peanuts and chocolate sauce on top of vanilla ice cream. “Tin roof sunday” is cited in a 1907 Mansfield (OH) newspaper; “tin roof sundae” is cited in a 1908 Marion (OH) newspaper. It seems likely that the concoction was named in Ohio.
Why the name “tin roof sundae”? Did red-skinned Spanish peanuts make it look like a tin roof? No one knows for sure about the name.
It’s sometimes claimed that Harold Dean “Pinky” Thayer invented the tin roof sundae at Potter Drug Co. in Potter, Nebraska, in 1916. However, “tin roof sundae/sunday” had been cited from Ohio about ten years before this.
Food Channel
Tin Roof Ice Cream
Posted by Editor at The Food Channel®
From the author: Do you know how tin roof ice cream got its name? Neither do I. Nor does anyone, it seems. I’ve tried to find out but have always come up empty-handed. I do know that it’s one of my favorite ice cream combinations, and I guess I need to be content with that. Tin roof sundaes are traditionally made of vanilla ice cream topped with chocolate sauce and a scattering of red-skinned Spanish peanuts. I couldn’t resist using chocolate-covered peanuts instead and folding them into the ice cream, where they become embedded between layers of fudge ripple.
Recipe reprinted with permission from The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments by David Lebovitz, copyright © 2007. (Recipe follows—ed.)
Edy’s
Tin Roof Sundae
Vanilla ice cream with swirls of fudge and chocolaty-covered peanuts. Our Tin Roof Sundae is sure to satisfy those ice cream cravings! We start with creamy vanilla ice cream, swirl it with ribbons of rich chocolaty fudge throughout and add just enough chocolaty-covered peanuts to make you go nuts! So, dig into the delicious, nutty, chocolaty experience we like to call Tin Roof Sundae!
Turkey Hill
Tin Roof Sundae
Vanilla flavored ice cream swirled with chocolate fudge and choco peanuts.
23 May 1907, Mansfield (OH) News, pg. 5, col. 6 ad:
The Western Ice Cream Parlors
For Buffalo Sundays, Tin Roof Sundays and the famous Chocolate Float, Sodas and Cream.
8 June 1907, Mansfield (OH) News, pg. 16, col. 5 ad:
Tin Roof Sunday
(Western Ice Cream Parlors—ed.)
14 April 1908, Marion (OH) Daily Star, pg. 6, col. 1 ad:
Tin Roof Sundae…5c
(...)
At KALER’S
Google Books
Caste-Three
By Gertrude M. Shields
New York, NY: The Century Co.
1918
Pg. 356:
He bought a “tin roof.” This was not real property, but ice-cream decorated with chocolate syrup and peanuts in their brown skins. Hewitt hated it, but it was a popular concoction and he was willing to go the limit with figs. Becker’s store sold hundreds of “tin roofs” a day. It was the thing in Alston.
June 1926, The Soda Fountain, pg. 48, col. 1.
College Ices (sundaes)
Tin Roof… .25
(Brooks Store, Fitchburg, MA—ed.)
9 March 1934, Hamilton (OH) Daily News Journal, pg. 2, col. 7 ad:
Tin Roof Sundae…10c
(Paramount Sweet Shoppe—ed.)
23 October 1936, Clearfield (PA) Progress, pg. 5, col. 4 ad:
TIN ROOF SUNDAE
10c
Two scoops of our delicious Ice Cream covered with smooth, rich chocolate and smothered with fresh roasted Spanish peanuts. Don’t miss this appetizing treat.
(Dairy Foods, Inc.—ed.)
12 July 1949, El Paso (TX)
, “Party Dessert Treat,” pg. 7, col. 3:
We like to make the ever famous “tin roof” sundaes with generous scoops of creamy vanilla ice cream topped with a rich chocolate saucee and then sprinkled with toasted slivered almonds. It’s a party dessert of there ever was one but it is also an easy-to-make treat for special family occasions.
Google Books
The deep sleep
By Wright Morris
New York, NY: Scribner
1953
Pg. 86:
...such as the summer afternoons that the Judge sneaked off to eat a Tin Roof. That was a chocolate sundae with a lot of salted peanuts sprinkled on the top. Right at a time when he swore he wouldn’t eat ice cream, peanuts, or salt.
Star-Herald (Scottsbluff, NE)
The Tin Roof: Potter Sundry famous for yummy creation
By: ROGER HOLSINGER, Assistant Editor Mar 10, 2009
(...)
From all accounts, the structure was built in 1914, two years after Potter was incorporated. The Potter Drug Co. opened its doors around 1916 and served as a drug store.
The pharmacist at the sundry was James Earl Thayer, whose son, Harold Dean “Pinky” Thayer is credited for inventing the ice cream treat. According to Dr. J.E. Thayer of Sidney, the family lived above the pharmacy and as a teenager, Pinky worked at the soda fountain. Thayer said there are two stories as to how the ice cream treat got its name. The first is that the treat was named the Tin Roof Sundae because of the tin ceiling in the business. The other, Thayer said, is that there was a stable business across the street that had a tin roof and that he named it after that.
Omaha (NE) World-Herald
Potter, Nebraska, population 300, preserves its rich legacy as the home of the Tin Roof Sundae
By Sarah Baker Hansen / / World-Herald staff writer Jun 13, 2017
(...)
The Sundry dates from 1914, and The Potter Drug Co. opened there around 1916. James Earl Thayer ran the pharmacy in Potter, and his family lived above it. Pinky, his son, who got his nickname because of his bright red, wavy hair, worked at the soda fountain. Sometime in the early 1930s he made the first Tin Roof Sundae.
(Trademark)
Word Mark FLORESVILLE TIN ROOF SUNDAE
Goods and Services IC 030. US 046. G & S: Ice cream. FIRST USE: 19880900. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19880900
Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
Serial Number 76442495
Filing Date August 16, 2002
Current Filing Basis 1A
Original Filing Basis 1A
Published for Opposition March 30, 2004
Registration Number 2855569
Registration Date June 22, 2004
Owner (REGISTRANT) HEB Grocery Company, LP HEBCO GP, LLC, a Texas limited liability company, its sole general partner LIMITED PARTNERSHIP TEXAS 646 South Main San Antonio TEXAS 78204
Attorney of Record Kirt S. O’Neill
Disclaimer NO CLAIM IS MADE TO THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO USE “TIN ROOF SUNDAE” APART FROM THE MARK AS SHOWN
Type of Mark TRADEMARK
Register PRINCIPAL-2(F)-IN PART
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE
Distinctiveness Limitation Statement as to “FLORESVILLE”