National Features

  • Phoenix New Times
    Canine Crusaders

    That drug-sniffing dog up ahead? He may not be your best friend.

    By Ray Stern
  • Broward-Palm Beach New Times
    The Muscle Men

    Thanks to a string of Florida "anti-aging clinics," baseball's steroid scandal isn't limited to superstars.

    By Michael J. Mooney
  • Miami New Times
    Picked On

    Farm workers earn nada in America's green-bean capital.

    By Janine Zeitlin
  • Village Voice
    "Why I'm No Longer a Brain-Dead Liberal"

    An election-season essay from one of America's greatest playwrights.

    By David Mamet

The Whistle Stop, located at Ferguson's historic train depot near the intersection of Florissant and Carson roads, offers some of the tastiest frozen treats around. Basic flavors are chocolate and vanilla; toppings include standard syrups, candies, fruits and nuts. Two Ferguson couples, the Jameses and the Cunninghams, launched the business earlier this year in conjunction with the reopening of the landmark train depot. They took a course in ice-cream-making, and the result has been an instant hit with the locals, many of whom still pined for Turner's, a Ferguson custard stand that closed in the early 1990s. The Whistle Stop borrows heavily on the railroad theme: concrete and sundae specials bear train-related names. Our particular favorite is the Conductor, a strawberry-and-hot-fudge concrete that in a healthy-sized regular serving costs $3.10. Although the heart-stopping, waistline-expanding custard is worth the trip, visitors get the extra bonus of viewing train- and Ferguson-related memorabilia that offer a glimpse at life in the North County burg 100 years ago.

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