Why Didn’t I Have Ice Cream for Breakfast? Tony’s Ice Cream Gastonia NC

The vintage neon clock on the deco glass brick wall of Tony's Ice Cream in Gastonia NC clearly showed that it was breakfast time, so we stopped by this family owned and operated business for our first roadfood meal on our retro road trip through North Carolina.

Tony's has been serving the Gaston County area since 1915, and since 1947 they've operated out of this yellow brick building right on the main drag in town. They also make their own ice cream here too, just 20 miles or so outside of Charlotte and a short hop off of 85.

We parked in the handy parking lot and entered through the side door to find a line of folks waiting for their breakfast fix. I was immediately taken with the tile walls, well kept chrome & red leatherette booths and Formica tables, many of them filled with families and local folks.

We were still getting our sea legs, this being one of our first food stops on our big retro road trip, so we decided to share a standard breakfast sandwich on toast. Looking at the menu now I wish we had thought to get country ham, or a biscuit or something more adventurous, but am relieved that we didn't get the liver mush!

After placing our order (and trying to ignore the looming vintage scale behind us) we waited at the window for our number to be called, and tried not to get in the way of folks coming in the door. I wanted to grab some photos of the outside of the building so I met RetroRoadhusband out in the car where we unwrapped our delicious amalgam of egg, cheese and the everlovin bacon on white toast.

Mmmm look at that piece bacon sticking its tongue out!

This was to be one of many meals on the road, and I knew I had a burger in my future, so I graciously allowed RetroRoadhusband to polish off most of this sandwich. Next time we're going through town I'm definitely getting an ice cream, no matter what time of the day it is!