A line snaked around the Original Rainbow Cone’s pink-painted Beverly storefront Sunday afternoon, as customers celebrated a century of the beloved confection.
For some, like Beth Roland, the event was personal. Six of Roland’s children worked at the shop as teenagers and, when two of her sons got married, Rainbow Cone owners Joe and Katherine Sapp even sent them rainbow cakes.
“They packed many a cone,” she said of her children.
Meanwhile, Rosemary Smith fondly remembered childhood visits to the shop.
“Grandpa took us all the time,” Smith, 80, said. Her family would drive down to Beverly from Bridgeport.
The shop celebrated its birthday with balloons, temporary tattoos and a giant ice-cream-shaped cake — complete with Rainbow Cone’s signature layered slices of chocolate, strawberry, Palmer House and pistachio almond ice creams, topped with orange sherbet. Last month, it also partnered with the Museum of Ice Cream for an exhibit marking the centennial.
Customers arrive at the pink storefront as Rainbow Cone celebrates their 100th birthday Aug. 9, 2026, in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Rainbow Cone has been a regional icon since 1926, signaling summer for generations of Chicagoans. The unconventional stack of flavors is created with a special slicing scoop, designed to create the cone’s broad, flat layers and keep the tower of ice cream structurally sound.
Over the years, the shop collected a devoted following. Lynn Sapp, granddaughter of Joe and Katherine Sapp, said it has even inspired some tattoos among its most hardcore fans.
“That’s the loyalty this product invokes,” she said, looking at the mass of customers packing the shop.
In the crowd was Ald. Matt O’Shea, 19th, who said he grew up just two blocks away.
“On summer nights, my father used to say to me and my siblings. ‘If everyone finishes their dinner, we can walk up to Rainbow Cone,’” he said.
Customers pick up their orders as Rainbow Cone celebrates their 100th birthday Aug. 9, 2026, in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Rainbow Cone has left a lasting mark on Beverly, O’Shea said, attracting people from across the city to the neighborhood and giving many teenagers their first jobs.
“They’re not just a small business in the community, they’re an institution,” he said.
Although a lot has changed, Sapp said, “the cone’s never wavered.”
“With all the gimmicks out there, the hundred-year cone is still working,” she said.