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Photo by Frank Taylor, circa 1959, courtesy of Chris Taylor Posing in a Carnation Company “antique” delivery truck |
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Whether you’re looking for a meal, dessert, or both, you’ll enjoy the atmosphere and nostalgia at the Carnation Ice Cream Parlor and Restaurant. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 1996 At the corner of Main Street and West Center Street |
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Sit inside near the old-fashioned ice cream counter or outside under red-and-white umbrellas. Best of all, you’ll be served by a friendly waiter or waitress. It’s great to relax at a real, table-service restaurant during a hectic theme park visit. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 1996 Carnation, a famous brand for ice cream and other dairy products |
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The Carnation Company began in 1899 as a maker of evaporated milk. Over time, the brand grew to include refrigerated dairy products, ice cream, and other grocery items. The star here at the Ice Cream Parlor is, of course, the ice cream. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 1996 Outdoor seating |
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Choose from a variety of sandwiches, salads, soups, and natural specialties. Or how about Mickey’s Chunky Pot Pie for lunch? |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 1996 Every kid loves ice cream |
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Ready for dessert? Try a Victorian Banana Split, Matterhorn Sundae, Star Tours Sundae, Snow White Sundae, Splash Mountain Sundae, or traditional Hot Fudge Sundae, with one scoop or two. Maybe you’d rather have a Big Thunder Sundae, made with large scoops of rocky road, chocolate chip, and coffee ice cream, with hot fudge, hot caramel, whipped cream, toasted almonds, and a cherry. When you get hungry in Yesterland, you might also enjoy dining in these other fine, table-service restaurants:
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In Disneyland, the Carnation Ice Cream Parlor was a Main Street institution dating back to opening day in 1955. In 1977, the restaurant expanded to fill West Center Street with an outdoor dining area. |
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Carnation Company publicity photo, circa 1955, copyright Disney and/or Carnation Company Walt Disney in the Carnation Company “antique”delivery truck |
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In January 1997, the Carnation Ice Cream Parlor closed. Guests could no longer enjoy a sundae while sitting on a tall stool at the spectacular ice cream counter. The outdoor area survived as the Carnation Café after an extensive remodeling, completed March 1997. Guests could order from a traditional breakfast menu or new lunch and dinner menus. Around the same time, Nestlé, which had acquired the Carnation Company in 1985, phased out the Carnation Ice Cream brand in favor of their other brands (including Edy’s, Dreyer’s, and Nestlé). Disneyland was allowed to keep the Carnation name. The space that had been occupied by the Carnation Ice Cream Parlor since 1955 became the counter-service Blue Ribbon Bakery, hosted by Nestlé Toll House. Next door, guests found a new place to buy ice cream—the Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor, hosted by Nestlé Ice Cream—in the space that had been the old Blue Ribbon Bakery (and previously the Sunkist Citrus House). |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2007 Carnation Café when it had only outdoor seating |
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At the beginning of 2012, the Jolly Holiday Bakery Café opened in the former Plaza Pavilion on the Hub, making the Blue Ribbon Bakery redundant. That allowed the Carnation Café to expand back into the space that had once been the Carnation Ice Cream Parlor and Restaurant, again with indoor as well as outdoor seating. |
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Photo by Chris Bales, 2012 The new Carnation Café in 2012 |
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The new Carnation Café, which opened in mid-2012, added new menu items, including apple-granola pancakes, huevos rancheros, fresh fish, and Walt Disney’s favorite beef-and-pork meatloaf for dinner. |
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Photo by Chris Bales, 2012 Not the Carnation Company logoscript |
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Only now it no longer had the familiar logoscript of the Carnation Company. Nestlé, the owner of Carnation since 1985, had retired the Carnation name as a brand for ice cream and other fresh dairy products around the time that the second Blue Ribbon Bakery and the outdoor-only Carnation Café opened. Disneyland still uses the Carnation name, as it has since the 1955 opening of the park. But it now refers to the flower, not to the Carnation brand of ice cream. Nestlé still uses the Carnation brand for drinkable breakfasts, evaporated and dry milk products, and malted milk powders. But who would want a table-service meal at a restaurant named after an instant breakfast powder? |
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© 1995-2018 Werner Weiss — Disclaimers, Copyright, and Trademarks Updated April 20, 2018. |
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