In its classic form, the banana split is served in a long dish called
a boat. A banana is cut lengthwise and laid on each side of the dish.
Like all ice cream dishes, there are many ways to prepare a banana
split, but the classic banana split is made with scoops of vanilla,
chocolate and strawberry ice cream served in a row between the split
banana with pineapple topping on the vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup
over the chocolate scoop, and strawberry topping on the strawberry, and
garnished with crushed nuts, whipped cream and maraschino cherries.
The first banana split was made in 1904 at Tassel Pharmacy in
Latrobe, Pennsylvania, by a 23 year old pharmacy apprentice by the name
of David Evans Strickler, who enjoyed experimenting with new desserts at
the store's soda fountain. It was an immediate hit with students at
nearby Saint Vincent College, and word of the new dessert spread
quickly. Strickler eventually purchased the pharmacy, and renamed it
Strickler's Pharmacy. In 2004, the city of Latrobe celebrated the 100th
anniversary of the banana split and that same year the National Ice
Cream Retailers Association (NICRA) certified Latrobe as the birthplace
of the banana split.
Despite that auspicious honor, the city of Wilmington, Ohio, is home
to the Banana Split Festival. In 1907, a Wilmington restaurant owner by
the name of Ernest Hazard staged an employee contest to come up with a
new ice cream dish as a way of attracting students from the local
college. When no one was able to come up with anything worthwhile,
Hazard split a banana lengthwise, threw it into an elongated dish and
created his own dessert. The banana split festival takes place every
year during the second weekend of June. Anybody who enjoys a good
old-fashioned festival, set to the tune of the fabulous 50s and 60s,
mixed with heaping banana splits of every description should try to make
their way to this tiny borough in southwest Ohio at least once in their
lifetime. Just think drive-in movies, poodle skirts, sock hops, Dick
Clark's American Bandstand, hula hoops, classic cars, and roadside
diners, and you’re half way there.
