ID that ice cream place: Moo Jersey edition
August 1, 2013 6:15 PM   Subscribe

I had an incredible milkshake once when I was a kid in the early aughts in southern New Jersey. The ice cream place served enormous milkshakes and had distinctive cow placemats. It was not near the shore; it was probably in a rural or somewhat rural area. What ice cream place was it?

We were either on our way to or back from Elmer, NJ. The milkshakes came in enormous glasses, each with a metal container full of extra milkshake on the side. They were impossible to finish. The place also had large, distinctive die-cut placemats, each with a single black and white cow on it. They looked vaguely like this cow placemat. I think the cow had the name of the ice cream place on its side, and maybe a red collar with a bell. There may or may not have been a counter where people sat and attempted to finish their milkshakes. Any ideas as to what the place was?
posted by topoisomerase to Food & Drink (7 answers total)
 
Was it the Holly Ravine in Cherry Hill? It was located on a working dairy farm and it might have had a petting zoo. I don't remember when it closed exactly but likely around that decade.
posted by IndigoOnTheGo at 6:51 PM on August 1, 2013


Best answer: Richman's in Woodstown? (now gone, sadly).
posted by scruss at 7:33 PM on August 1, 2013 [1 favorite]


I'm going to go with IndigoOnTheGo and say that the former Cowtail Dairy Bar in what's now Cherry Hill, NJ is a likely candidate. It was *the* place to go for ice cream if you were in that part of PA/NJ, and definitely had the cow placemats (along with knotty pine walls and booths designed to look like cow stalls). The location was definitely "rural" until the early 80s, and by the late 80s when it closed it was only barely semi-rural, it closed and became a strip mall (named Holly Ravine after the farm).
posted by kaszeta at 5:50 AM on August 2, 2013


The Cowtail Bar was closed well before the "early aughts" when OP was a kid. Richman's was open until a few years ago and was also cow-themed.
posted by kimberussell at 6:42 AM on August 2, 2013


I went to the Cowtail as a kid during the '70s, and it was gone by the late '80s, when I moved back to the area. Too bad, great spot!
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 7:30 AM on August 2, 2013


Response by poster: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

It was totally Richman's. I am so sad right now. But thank you, everyone!
posted by topoisomerase at 7:14 PM on August 3, 2013


Glad I could help, and I'm sorry it's gone too.

I've only been there once, in 1997 or so. ms scruss was volunteering in downtown Baltimore at the time, and on one of my visits, we drove to the beach through NJ. ms scruss was all like “There's this great ice cream place in rural New Jersey, and it's got this huge cow on top — you can see it for miles!”. So we arrived, and while the shakes were crazy huge (I think it's the only one I've never finished) and really great, the cow was normal-sized.

So every time we go for ice cream anywhere, we talk about the huge cow in New Jersey.
posted by scruss at 10:07 AM on August 4, 2013


« Older String, or nothing!   |   I can't believe I paid someone to hurt me that... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.