Toby Bantug is always looking for creative ways to expand the menu at his three Northern Virginia ice cream shops, and the Olympics provided another opportunity.
This year’s Paris Games were on his radar, but before taking action, he had to make sure each shop had all of the necessary supplies. But things became more urgent when Torri Huske won a gold medal.
Huske, who graduated from Yorktown High School and has ties across Arlington, won gold in the women’s 100 butterfly event. As Bantug considered an Olympic-themed menu item honoring Huske’s success, he recognized the value of celebrating not just her, but all Olympians.
That proved to be the inspiration for the shop’s new Gold Medal Sundae, a traditional ice cream sundae with patriotic sprinkles and a flag. They’ve already sold about 100 across their three locations, Bantug said.
FFX Now first reported the newest menu item.
“It is one of those things, just like the Cicada Sundae, we do what we do, and if people respond, great,” Bantug said. “If they don’t respond, great. We are just having a good time with it.”
The sundae, which costs $9, has two scoops of ice cream and toppings, such as hot fudge, peanut butter, strawberry or pineapple.
The more traditional sundaes have whipped cream, nuts and a cherry, but the Olympic-themed sundae has whipped cream, red, white and blue sprinkles with tiny gold medals, a gold-foil-covered chocolate medal and either a U.S. or Filipino flag.
The U.S. variation could include chocolate or vanilla scoops, Bantug said. For the Filipino flag option, he recommended flavors such as ube or calamansi sorbet, “to make it truly a Filipino sundae.”
The Filipino flag option was added after Carlos Yulo won a gold medal in men’s gymnastics, Bantug said.
“People know some of these people, and they grew up right around here,” Bantug said about local Olympians, such as Huske. “For us, we’re very proud of that fact, and we want to celebrate these people because they’re normal people, just like us.”
Signs across the shop are promoting the sundae, and many customers have said they know Huske’s coach or their child was part of a swim club with her, Bantug said.
His hope is the menu addition motivates customers to recognize there may be many more Olympians from the neighborhood.
“We were super excited to have some people from Arlington because that’s where we live,” one customer said Wednesday. “We were very excited to watch the swimming and Torri Huske. That was super fun.”
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