Warm chocolate sauce sliding over cold ice cream is the whole idea behind National Hot Fudge Sundae Day on Sunday, July 25, 2027. Two small towns still argue over who made the first sundae.
National Hot Fudge Sundae Day on the Calendar
July 25 is the date each year. No government has ever made it official.
Ithaca, Two Rivers and a Los Angeles Candy Shop
Nobody knows who founded the food day. The sundae, however, has a paper trail, and it leads to Ithaca, New York.
On Sunday, April 3, 1892, Chester Platt likely served the first one at his Platt & Colt drug store, Cornell’s alumni magazine reports. His customer was John Scott, a minister at the First Unitarian Church.
Soda fountain worker DeForest Christiance prepared two dishes of vanilla ice cream. Cherry syrup and a candied cherry went on top, though accounts differ on who picked them.
He named it the “Cherry Sunday.” An April 5, 1892, ad in the Ithaca Daily Journal is the earliest documented use of the name.
Another paper, the Daily Sun, called it “a delicious, dainty Ice Cream novelty, just out yesterday.” Six ads ran over the next two weeks.
Students from Cornell reportedly came back for more and carried the idea home on vacations.
In 1894, the store tried to trademark “Sunday” and was turned down, since protection then required use in foreign trade. A plaque in the Ithaca Commons now marks the spot.
Two Rivers’ older claim
Two Rivers, Wisconsin, about 40 miles southeast of Green Bay, tells a story set in 1881. Ed Berners supposedly poured chocolate syrup over vanilla ice cream and later sold it for a nickel on Sundays. Mental Floss notes that no hard evidence backs it, so treat it as a local legend.
Berners later added toppings like bananas and raspberry sauce. A customer, the story goes, suggested the “sundae” spelling.
Evanston has its own tale about an 1890 ban on Sunday ice cream sodas, backed by the Methodist church. Shops supposedly answered with a “Sunday soda” of ice cream and syrup, minus the soda water. That one is also a local account.
That odd spelling probably came from a wish not to offend churchgoers, according to writer Anne Cooper Funderburg. By 1902, a trade article in The Spatula was discussing the “sundae,” and the term was common by the decade’s end.
Enter hot fudge
C.C. Brown’s opened as a downtown Los Angeles candy shop in 1906 and later claimed credit for the hot fudge sundae. It moved to Hollywood, drew celebrity customers and closed in 1996.
Still on the Menu
Sundaes now appear on 15.3% of U.S. restaurant menus, up from 13.7% five years earlier, the Columbia Gorge News reported in July 2026.
Pistachio and pretzel rank among the fastest-growing toppings on American menus, along with gummies and blueberry.
The rivalry has become part of the fun. Two Rivers marked 145 years of its story in 2026, and Ithaca’s Sundae Showdown drew more than 450 people in 2025.
Things have gotten playful. Two Rivers once sent Ithaca a cease-and-desist order, and Ithaca’s mayor received more than 100 postcards from Two Rivers residents. One was signed “The Ghost of Ed Berners.”
Building a Better Sundae
- Warm the fudge slowly so it pours smoothly.
- Go classic with vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream, chopped nuts and a cherry.
- Make an Ithaca-style sundae with cherry syrup and a candied cherry on top.
- Try a trending topping such as pistachio or crushed pretzel.
- Visit a family-run ice cream parlor in your town.
- Read both towns’ stories and pick a side.
Frequently Asked Questions
Were toppings on ice cream before 1892?
Yes. Buffalo shops advertised fruit syrup and whipped cream on ice cream sodas in 1889.
Who owned the Ithaca store after Platt?
Christiance bought the business in 1900.
How big is Two Rivers?
About 2,000 people live there, by Mental Floss’s count.