Dari Dip sweetens with the season

The foot-long dog at Dari Dip. (Photo by Mark Gilliland)

The birch pear trees have budded; the days have lengthened; and I’ve officially traded my winter socks for open-toed shoes. It all adds up to one thing: ice cream season at Dari Dip.

Located in the quaint heart of Lafayette, Ga., sits Dari Dip, a simple Southern diner with a rusty red roof and the large lighted image of an ice cream cone fixed to its side. It is where down-home dining meets small-town charm, with a cherry on top. Literally.

Dari Dip is famous for its desserts. Its best-seller is the brownie sundae smothered with hot fudge and a scoop of ice cream, stacked with whipped cream, and topped with a sweet Maraschino cherry. The restaurant’s lengthy list of sweet treats features coconut pie and fruit cobblers.

This time of year Dari Dip trades out its baked goods for hand-scooped ice cream, which steals the spotlight every spring. Flavors include birthday cake, moose tracks, butter pecan, rocky road, strawberry, turtle tracks, black cherry, mint chocolate chip, chocolate chip cookie dough and low-carb vanilla.

Dari Dip also has a variety of soft-serve ice cream flavors including vanilla, chocolate, vanilla and chocolate twist, or orange sherbet.

The restaurant’s locally famous milkshakes come in vanilla, cherry, banana, peanut butter, butterscotch, pineapple, chocolate, caramel and strawberry flavors.

Dari Dip offers a number of toppings to add to whatever sweet frozen treat you order: whipped cream, chopped fruit, wet walnuts and — of course — succulent maraschino cherries. Indeed, spring is the sweetest time of year.