Stepping Back in Time at Conrad's

Eager to flee momentarily a confusing world of Blackberries (how often do people need to check their e-mail?), SUVs, and Lady Gaga, I've been time traveling quite a bit.

I lunched at Conrad's Ice Cream Parlor as a kid, and this place hasn't changed since. There's something comforting knowing that there are constants that don't need to modernize with the times.



They have booths or tables, but doesn't sitting at the counter sound like fun?

Have a cherry lime ricky, $3.

Soup cans from New Jersey-based soup maker Campbell's.

Soul-nourishing tomato soup, $2. I love their sky blue plates and bowls, which the teenage girls behind the counter wash by hand.

Homemade ice cream.

I'll take coffee served this way over a disposable cup and plastic lid any day: a cup of joe, $1.


Okay, some things do change: the music that was playing, not any 1950s music or something more festive that would match its theme. Instead, Nine Inch Nails!

Visit Conrad's Ice Cream Parlor and Luncheonette, 107 Westwood Ave., Westwood, New Jersey.

Up next: a visit to the 1930's.