A Cool 100 Years Of Rainbow Cone

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (0:18)
Stick around until the end of the episode to get caught up on the top local news stories of the day. But first, the Rainbow Cone. It's celebrating a hundred years of serving up its signature stack of five flavors, chocolate, strawberry, pistachio, orange sherbet and Palmer House. That's vanilla with walnuts and cherries. But here's my confession.
I've somehow made it nearly six years in Chicago without ever trying one. Can you believe it? Well, that's until now. We're going to dig into the history, family legacy and hometown pride behind the iconic Rainbow Cone brand. At the table with me was Lisa Shames, a freelance reporter focused on food culture and travel, and Johnny Buonavolanto, who's director of sales for The Buona Companies.
Lisa kicked things off with a description of Chicago's sweet summer staple. Here she is.

**Lisa Shames** (1:07)
Well, like you said, it's 100 years old. It started on the south side, 1926, a husband and wife. What I heard from the third-generation owner talking about her grandfather, he just loved ice cream and created this iconic cone that today is kind of like an Instagram ready and set to go.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (1:27)
It is pretty Instagrammable, that's for sure.

**Lisa Shames** (1:29)
And it's not scoops, which I think is really iconic. It's layers, which works as far as like it's not going to fall off the cone. It just looks really pretty. So I love that part of it.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (1:40)
Yeah. Well, I had my very first one yesterday.
There's a rainbow cone here at Navy Pier. So for research purposes, for journalism, I went downstairs and bought a cone with our producer, Meha Ahmed. So here's a little bit of how that went.

**Meha Ahmed** (1:55)
You are now taking your first taste. How does it feel?

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (2:00)
I have no words.

**Meha Ahmed** (2:01)
No words?

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (2:02)
This is so good. I'm so surprised at how the flavors blend together.
I didn't think that it would work.

**Meha Ahmed** (2:09)
Let the record show that Linnea Dominic, producer of the show, thought that you wouldn't like it.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (2:13)
She guessed I wouldn't like it because I'm usually very plain and simple with things that I like and what I don't like. And this being such a mixture of flavors, I can understand why somebody would think that, but I am thoroughly enjoying this.
I can't eat it fast enough, though, so it's melting a lot.

**Meha Ahmed** (2:31)
It feels like summer.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (2:32)
It was really good. It was really good, Lisa. Now, have you tried a Rainbow Cone?

**Lisa Shames** (2:38)
Full confession as well. I tried it for the first time on July 4th. I came to Navy Pier. I wanted to see it with the tourists and all that. And exactly what you said, it's the blending of the flavors. You don't get one. Maybe you start with the sherbet on top and you kind of start there.
Lynn, who's the third generation owner, it's like a palate cleanser and then you kind of got to go down. It's top bottom, bottom top, you choose.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (3:02)
Everything works so well.

**Lisa Shames** (3:03)
Yes, and it's so different, but every lick is different. It's surprise after surprise.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (3:08)
It was remarkable. Johnny, how about you? What was your first Rainbow Cone experience like?

**Johnny Buonavolanto** (3:14)
Well, my first Rainbow Cone experience was at Taste of Chicago with my dad. He would take us because we had our bone of beef booth there way back when.
And he would take me down to work for a day and I got to have a Rainbow Cone.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (3:28)
Yeah. No, that's a pretty iconic Chicago moment for sure. So tell us a bit more about how this all began, Lisa. So you talk about this couple from Beverly, right? That's where it started.

**Lisa Shames** (3:38)
Yes.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (3:39)
A hundred years ago.

**Lisa Shames** (3:41)
And it was a small little stand. Lynn Sapp said it was probably about the size of the Navy Pier, which is like three people can fit in there. So that was the original.
Then eventually they moved across the street, single store. Then they added a second bright pink, which was Catherine Sapp's favorite color. And it just kept going from there. Then their son took it over. They moved to the house in the back where the grandparents, the original owners, were upstairs. And it became the third generation of just the family sticking by it. And Lynn was the one. Her other brothers and sisters did other things, but she stuck with it. And yeah, it's so beautiful, I think.