References to ice cream in American cookery appear throughout the Colonial era, but vanilla’s popularity is credited to Thomas Jefferson. × Expand A recipe for oyster ice cream in “The Virginia House-wife”When many restaurants were male-only spaces, ice cream saloons were especially popular with women. Meanwhile, in Jackson Ward, Black-owned businesses thrived and Black Richmonders enjoyed ice cream at Easley’s Ice Cream Parlors (615 N. Second St.), and “milk shakes, limeades, nectars, phosphates, mineral waters,” and “ice cream in every style and flavor,” at Winston’s (537 Brook Ave.). The 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair brought us the ice cream cone — almost called, as the Richmond Evening News reported, the “cornucopia ice cream sandwich.” Last year brought basil and tomato ice cream from Scoop and both Duke’s Mayo ice cream and tomato-watermelon sorbet from Ruby Scoops.