Taste from yesteryear

March 7, 2008 at 1:15a.m.

The business’s grand opening is March 23.

BOARDMAN — Remember the days when no one worried about locking doors, families ate dinners together, and you spent childhood afternoons at Idora Park? Sometimes, on the way back, your family stopped for Parker’s Frozen Custard.

Those memories are what the owners of a new business in an old tradition hope to rekindle.

Thomas Gilmartin Jr., his son, Brian, manager John Courter and other investors will open Parker’s Frozen Custard on March 23 in Presidential Square Plaza, U.S. Route 224. Parker’s is next to Honeybaked Ham.

“We’ll be open before the grand opening though,” Thomas Gilmartin said. “All people have to do is knock on the door. If the lights are on, we’re here.”

The frozen custard formula is the same at the new store as when Sarah Parker opened the Parker’s stand in 1936 at the corner of Winona Drive and Glenwood Avenue, just down the road from Idora Park.

“Frozen custard comes from the most expensive items in the dairy section,” Thomas Gilmartin said. “It’s a specific thing. It’s not ice cream, it’s not self-serve. It’s very high-maintenance.”

He bought the formula, name and some of the equipment from the Timms family a few years ago and has been going to area fairs and festivals selling the frozen treat from a mobile unit during that time. The mobile unit will remain in operation.

Both Gilmartins also attended Scoop School offered by Ross Manufacturing in Michigan to hone their skills.

“We learned the science and art of making frozen custard and serving it,” Brian Gilmartin said.

They bought one of the antique machines from the Timms family and dubbed it The Cow.

To get the right custard consistency takes some work.

Brian Gilmartin explained that the custard, manufactured at a dairy facility that uses Parker’s secret recipes, must be fed into The Cow’s hopper at the right speed and each flavor involves a slightly different technique.

“It’s about tempo and temperature,” Courter said.

The main flavors offered are the original Bright White Vanilla, Victory Vanilla, developed by Sarah Parker after World War II, and chocolate.

“We’ll have a variety, but we’ll probably have a flavor of the day,” Courter said.

Custard is best when fresh, made and served the same day.

“Every place that I go where I talk to people about Parker’s, their eyes light up,” Courter said. “One of my best memories is of going to Parker’s on the weekends.”

The Parker family operated the Winona-Glenwood stand until 1978. Sarah Parker and her son, David, died that same year. Another son, Gordon, a WWII pilot, died during the war.

“Everyone over 40 remembers Parker’s,” Thomas Gilmartin said. “They all have stories about Parker’s and that’s what we want.”

He calls those people Parker’s Pals and hopes to attract them and their families as well as new customers.

“It harkens back to a time when we didn’t lock our doors, we didn’t lock our cars and the South Side of Youngstown was very different than it is now,” Gilmartin said.

To get the attention of the younger generation, the business has three video clips on YouTube featuring Custard Cow, the spokes puppet.