Carvel celebrates 90 years of dreamy ice cream by reintroducing this favorite flavor

After 90 years, Carvel has not gone soft.

They're as much on their game now, as a brand of Atlanta's Roark Capital Group, as they were when they were everybody's favorite local ice cream franchise — under the eye of loveable, gravel-voiced Tom Carvel.

And to prove it, they're bringing back a favorite old flavor from the 1970s: Orange Dreamy Creamy.

"This year we're celebrating out 90th birthday," said Carvel spokeswoman Marissa Sharpless. "We really wanted to do something special. With a brand that's been around for as long as we have, there are a lot of fan-favorite flavors that we haven't offered for a long time. Orange Dreamy Creamy is one we had a lot of fanfare about when we first offered it in the '70s."

For a limited time this summer, you can get this delicious orange-vanilla swirled confection as soft serve, as hard ice cream, as a shake, as a sundae "Dasher," and as a "Flying Saucer" sandwich.

"We felt it was the perfect way to kick off a pretty big celebratory year for us," Sharpless said.

A Jersey tradition

The Northeast region — and New Jersey in particular — is still the heart of Carvel country. Of the more the 350 Carvel stores worldwide, nearly 50 are in New Jersey. What trip to the shore was complete without a stop at a Carvel stand for a Lollapalooza, a Parfait, or a Brown Bonnet ice cream cone?

"Our largest percentage (of stores) is in the Northeast, and our next biggest group of shops is down in Florida," Sharpless said.

It was in 1934 — 90 years ago, this Memorial Day — that Athanasios Karvelas, a.k.a. Tom Carvel, got a flat tire while driving a truck full of ice cream in the vicinity of Hartsdale, N.Y.

In the best entrepreneurial spirit, he sold his melting ice cream from his truck to passing summer vacationers as "soft ice cream." Something brand new!

Actually, it wasn't — Archie C. Kohr seems to have originated "frozen custard" in Coney Island in 1919 (Kohr's stands can still be seen at the Jersey shore). But when Carvel sold his entire liquefying stock in two days, he realized he was on to something. By 1937 he had a stand, at the site where his truck had broken down, and never looked back.

More: The history of ice cream and Carvel runs deep in NJ. A new podcast examines it

In 1949, he began to franchise the brand as "Carvel Dari-Freez." It was one of the first franchise food businesses: paving the way for McDonald's and Burger King. The slanty, glass-fronted stores began to multiply: by the early 1950s there were more than 50.

In his own voice

One thing that made the Carvel brand stand out was Carvel himself.

The rough-voiced, unprepossessing Tom Carvel insisted on doing his own commercials: and he lent an air of homey authenticity to the product. Carvel died in 1990, but his spirit is still part of the brand.

"We absolutely try to keep that woven into everything we do, even as we modernize," Sharpless said. "We are very fortunate that we have people who have the memories of experiencing Carvel as children, and we want every time you experience our brand to be able to relive those memories."

One vivid memory, for many, is Carvel's famous ice cream cakes: Fudgie The Whale, Hug Me The Bear, Cookie Puss, and — for St. Patrick's Day — Cookie O'Puss.

Carvel is still very much in the cake business. Though they have yet to come up with a Dreamy Creamy Orange O'Puss.

"While our guests can customize any of our cakes, we don't have a preset cake in our freezer that is made with Orange Dreamy Creamy," she said. "But if a customer came in and wanted one, we could make it."

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Carvel celebrates its 90th anniversary with nostalgia: Orange Dreamy Creamy