The History of the Ice Cream Cone

Many inventors have been credited as having invented the first ice cream cone

The walk-away edible ice cream cone made its American debut at the 1904 Saint Louis World's Fair. Ice cream in a cone was served up by several vendors at the Fair. Nobody know for certain who made the first ice cream cone. Paper and metal cones had been used in Europe for some time to hold ice cream and it was known that edible cones were being served in England prior to the 1904 World's Fair.

Abe Doumar

Lebanese immigrant, Abe Doumar built one of the first machines in the United States for making ice cream cones. Doumar created waffle type cones by adapting a waffle iron into a cone oven. However, Doumar did not make his first cone oven until after the World's Fair.

Italo Marchiony, Charles Menches

Italo Marchiony submitted a patent in 1903 for a mold to make an edible cups with handles. On July 23, 1904, Charles Menches of St. Louis, Missouri started filling pastry cones with two scoops of ice cream.

Most historians believe that there were over fifty ice cream cone stands at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair and it is possible that several people invented the ice cream cone at the same time. However, the cone definitely become popular in America by way of the St. Louis World's Fair.