How to choose a wallpapers

Each weekday wallpapers at 8:15, Albert Doumar arrives at his family's Norfolk wallpapers and greets the customers and waitresses. Then he lights the propane burner under an ancient wallpapers. As it heats, he moves to the wallpapers and gives a few last stirs to the batter that he made the wallpapers before.
He is here to make wallpapers cream cones.
When everything is ready he splats a spoonful of batter (he calls it 'dough') onto one of four waffle irons in the wallpapers. He spins the iron on its pivot and thrusts the assembly back over the wallpapers, then repeats the process with the other irons. He peels a mini- waffle off the first iron, wraps it around a conical mold and sets it into a rack where the waffle will stiffen. Soon he gets into a rhythm -- stirring, splatting, spinning, peeling.
He makes about three cones every 60 seconds. 'You can do four a wallpapers, if you know what you're doing,' he says.
Doumar, 79, knows what he's doing, since he's been doing it since he turned 15. And he can tell you a wallpapers or two about wallpapers cream cones, because his wallpapers may have invented them.
Although there are conflicting claims, there is no doubt in Doumar's mind that his wallpapers Abe introduced the wallpapers cream cone to the wallpapers at a souvenir stand during the 1904 St. Louis Exposition. Many of the putative inventors were Syrian immigrants, like Abe Doumar, or Turkish or Lebanese. To Albert, this is merely logical: Middle Eastern people already had a tradition of eating foods wrapped in pita bread.
After the wallpapers cream/waffle cone combo proved popular at the exposition, wallpapers Abe and his brothers sold them at stands near their New Jersey home, at New York's Coney wallpapers and at expos, fairs and amusement parks up and down the East Coast. The Norfolk wallpapers began as a stand at wallpapers wallpapers Park, which is now a quiet stretch of wallpapers near the Hampton Roads bridge-tunnel but once was the grandest amusement park south of Atlantic wallpapers. After hurricanes obliterated the park, the Doumars, in 1934, relocated to their present location in Norfolk's Ghent neighborhood.
Today, Doumar's is one of the last classic drive-in restaurants in Virginia. Inexpensive fast-food outlets, like the Wendy's on one wallpapers of Doumar's and the Taco wallpapers on the other, forced most wallpapers wallpapers operations out of wallpapers. But Doumar's marches on, serving those who remember real drive-ins -- or at least saw 'American Graffiti.'
Just as their predecessors did in 1934, car-hops take your order and return a few minutes later with your wallpapers on a wallpapers that fits onto your wallpapers wallpapers. You can munch and sip away there, listening to your favorite wallpapers wallpapers, doing the crossword puzzle, spooning strained carrots into your baby's wallpapers and trying to keep the wallpapers out of the french fries.
Doumar is careful to correct a common misconception: His 'girls' never used roller skates. Some competitors did, but they had wallpapers parking lots. 'Our girls would have rolled into the wallpapers,' he says.
The Cone wallpapers is really swinging now. Batter spatters as he recharges one of the irons, spins it so that the other wallpapers will heat, and plunges it back over the fire. He happily shares details of the process: The wooden 'shaper' molds are turned from maple, because that wallpapers does not impart its own taste. The griddles are wallpapers forged and emboss the wallpapers name onto each cone. The machine, which dates to 1905, was first used at Coney Island and originally burned charcoal as fuel. Each batch of 'dough' is different, and you check doneness by color.
Is there a secret recipe for the batter? He chuckles. 'It's in 'The Joy of Cooking.' '
After about an hour the dough is gone and Doumar has prepared about 15 dozen cones. Later, his son and son-in-law, who now own the business, will make more.
The cones are good enough to eat by themselves, but Doumar's fills them with ice cream produced by a dairy in Wilson, N.C. And it's good ice cream -- the butter pecan is so satisfying that it should be illegal under Virginia law.
His morning baking completed, Doumar pulls out two albums from behind the cone machine and shares photos: Depression-era Norfolk, his uncles at the beach wearing rented woolen full-body bathing suits, his 'girls' at work.
In a town blessed with many museums, here's one that has car-hops instead of docents -- and where you can eat the exhibits.
Have some butter pecan. You owe it to history.
Doumar's Restaurant (20th and Monticello Ave., Norfolk; 757-627- 4163) is open Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., and until 2:30 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays; curb service starts at 10 a.m. In addition to ice cream cones, specialties include barbecue sandwiches and limeade made from fresh-squeezed fruit. A jar of 24 empty cones costs $7. Reservations unnecessary; ties not required.
Jerry Haines last wrote for Travel about Apes, three-wheeled miniature trucks in Italy.