Pineapple Whip = Summer

Food & Drink

Pineapple Whip = Summer

By Bill Bailey August 1, 2008 2:01 pm

By Bill Bailey | August 1, 2008 2:01 pm

FOOD CHANNEL VIDEO SPOTLIGHT

Does your town have a shaved ice or snow cone stand, a fruity-whip wagon or other frozen treat kiosk that shows up every summer—a cool place to go and hang out with friends on a sultry summer night?

Around one Midwest town, it’s the Pineapple Whip stand.

Pineapple Whip has been a summertime institution for more than three decades in Springfield, Missouri. Every year, as spring weather starts to warm up, the city looks forward to the reappearance of the gyrating hula girl atop the PW stand.

We took our Food Channel video-cam to the Ozark Empire Fair to visit with Mike Fortner, the man behind Pineapple Whip’s Hula girl, Lulu – and the refreshing summer treat that is Missouri’s original Pineapple Whip.

Food & Drink, Food News

Bill Bailey

Senior Writer, The Food Channel A graduate of the University of Missouri’s prestigious School of Journalism, Bill has more than 35 years experience in the advertising industry. Joining Noble Communications in 1982, he has spent most of the past 25 years writing for food clients, including Tyson Foods, Borden Cheese, Quaker Oats, Campbell’s Soup, and Smucker’s among many others. As perhaps his chief claim to fame, Bill created the brand name, “Snackwell’s,” for Nabisco—which went on to become one of the most successful new products of the ’90s. As Senior Writer for The Food Channel™, Bill’s responsibilities include content development, writing and editing. He is a frequent contributor of feature articles, interviews, social commentary, and reviews of food-related media.

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