Couple of Jerks Soda Fountain Shop is actually pretty sweet place in downtown Perry
Bobby socks, juke boxes and the good old days come to mind as soon as you step into A Couple of Jerks Soda Fountain Shop in downtown Perry.
We came on a special night, with a costume contest and lots of children adding to the family atmosphere of the place. Seeing a homecoming queen sharing a chocolate shake with her date gave us another blast to the past.
The sandwiches are pretty basic, like the Turkey Jerk with deli meat and a slice of cheese on white bread. There's a ham version, a wrap version, and a ham and turkey version on the same theme.
But if you're coming to a soda fountain, you're not really looking for sustenance. There's an entire chalkboard of flavors of fountain sodas, shakes and floats. We tried the fountain vanilla coke, the orange creamcicle, a black and white float, and a basic chocolate shake. I tasted everybody's, but my black and white float with chocolate syrup, vanilla ice cream, and seltzer was definitely my favorite.
Other drink choices include the Black Cow with cola, a Brown Cow with root beer, an Orange Cow with Fanta, and a Strawberry Blond with strawberry syrup. Don't let the "Egg Cream" title scare you -- egg creams are all syrup, seltzer and cream (or whole milk) and no egg. For the adventurous, make up a flavor of your own. Sodas without ice cream are $2.25, floats are $3.50, and shakes start at $4.50. The most unusual shake flavor was the Purple Cow, which is grape, and I refuse to do that to ice cream. The shake choices listed on the board are pretty basic, but you can always concoct your own creation from the flavor choices.
Sundaes start at $3.50 and go up with extravagance. The basic model has one scoop of ice cream, one sauce and whipped cream. Extra scoops and extra sauces go up a dollar per pairing. We had a beautiful Oreo sundae for $5 and considered it a solid deal. Other sundae choices include a Hawaiian with bananas and pineapple, a Moon Pie with two warm Moon Pies, and a pecan pie a la mode sundae.
If you want to keep it simple, you can buy ice cream by the scoop or the cone. A banana split is just $6 and its little brother the Tug Boat is $5.
A few changes I'd like to see would be louder sock hop music on the speakers and peppier servers. They've got the white short-sleeve shirts and black bow ties, but I'd love to see big grins and snappy repartee as well.
Either way, A Couple of Jerks are actually nice guys in a sweet, old-fashioned town.
A Couple of Jerks Soda Fountain Shop
Address: 757 Carroll St., Perry
Phone: 478-335-8121
Website: www.facebook.com/acoupleofjerkssodafountainshop
Hours: 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday
Payment: Cash, credit
Smoking: No
Alcohol: No
Kids Menu: Yes
Noise Level: Low
Health Rating: 93
Price range: $2.25-$6
Rating: 2.5 stars
This story was originally published November 5, 2015 at 7:54 PM with the headline "Couple of Jerks Soda Fountain Shop is actually pretty sweet place in downtown Perry ."