PORTLAND, Maine — To celebrate its 70th birthday, Down East magazine opted for ice cream rather than cake.
The plan was big: To shine a light on 70 different ice cream stands and makers all across the state, picking out places that have great ice cream and a story to go with it. It wasn't long before Editor-in-Chief Will Grunewald and his staff began to have second thoughts.
"Pretty easy to tout 25 favorites. Not impossible to get to 50," he wrote in the August anniversary issue. "But 70 sounded a bit overly ambitious."
Happily, those concerns turned out to be unfounded and the staff soon found itself with "an overwhelming surplus of worthy options." When sampling ice cream and popsicles and frappes and sundaes and gelato, though, what starts out as a dream assignment can turn into something of a slog.
Indeed, even though it's only July, Will has a confession: "I've already had too much ice cream this summer."
Want to find out what else is featured in the 70th anniversary issue of Down East? Watch our interview to learn more.