Tony's Ice Cream on East Franklin Boulevard is a Gastonia institution — a 1940s ice cream parlour and lunch counter that has barely changed since it opened. The menu runs to ice cream sundaes, milkshakes, and simple sandwiches, all served in a setting that feels like a movie prop for mid-century America: spinning counter stools, a long Formica counter, and vintage neon signs.
It is the kind of place that exists in every American small city — or rather used to exist — and the fact that Tony's is still operating and still busy says something about Gastonia's loyalty to its own past. Worth stopping in even if you are just passing through.