Foster's Freeze, Ventura

Foster's Freeze

4121 Telegraph Rd

Ventura, CA 93003

Last winter I noticed a leak in my garage, and knew that this summer I'd have to re-roof. Since there is only two layers of roofing paper, I cleaned off the debris and me and my boy, with some help from my older daughter, rolled on a new layer of roofing on the old. 

It wasn't a complicated job, but it did take the whole day, and at the end of it all, after being on the roof in the sun, I wanted a banana split. And I wanted it from Fosters.

Foster's Freeze has been in the Los Angeles area since the 40's, and when I was young, I'd go either there or Tastee Freeze to have soft serve vanilla ice cream dipped in chocolate, a treat that I still buy my kids.

(Foster's also plays an important part of LA surf music history, the Hawthorne branch being the spot where Dennis Wilson saw a pretty girl in a Thunderbird, which he then went home and told his big brother Brian about. Brian wrote "Fun, Fun, Fun" using Dennis's observation as the basis.)

But I felt like my day in the sun (I had taken a 4 mile run in the morning, too) rated a banana split. And I wanted it with soft serve, and so that's what I got. I could even argue that the Foster's Banana Split has less calories then one from Baskin-Robbins or the other ice cream chains in town, making it a healthy choice! Let's hear it for rationalizations!

Here in Ventura, we still have a Foster's "Old Fashion" Freeze, in what appears to be an original building, and not sharing a space with El Pollo Loco (which for some reason doesn't seem to taste as good). The building has cool  "Foster's Man" tiles and sponsor's a "Cruise Night" the third Friday of the month, which I once brought my '63 Valiant convertible to.

And it was the perfect spot for a Friday evening banana split with my kids. I ordered my banana split, while two of my kids ordered Twisters and the third a root beer float. 

Nothing fancy about it. It tasted just like it looks-cold and refreshing, made the way I remember. Three servings of soft serve ice cream, topped with chocolate, pineapple and strawberry, with whip cream, nuts and a cherry. Add a fresh banana, split down the middle, which makes it "healthy." Hard to go wrong, and highly recommended for a once in a while treat.

As the summer draws to a close, for a few happy moments all was right with the world.