Cicada Sundae: Public Abuzz Over Arlington Shop's Frozen Treat

ARLINGTON, VA — Toby’s Homemade Ice Cream & Coffee in Arlington is offering a Cicada Sundae. Don’t worry. It’s not made with real cicadas.

The frozen treat comes with one scoop each of chocolate, bittersweet chocolate and café au lait, topped with chocolate sprinkles, two red M&Ms and a waffle cone.

Toby's, located in the Westover neighborhood, created the sundae after being inspired by the Brood X cicada. The waffle cones are fashioned to look like wings and the M&Ms as eyes.

Demand for the Cicada Sundae grew after Toby’s posted about it on Facebook on Thursday, May 20. During the first weekend, the shop sold about 30 Cicada Sundaes.

But then people started posting about the sundae on foodie websites in Northern Virginia. "Demand for the Cicada Sundae grew organically," Toby Bantug, who founded Toby's Homemade Ice Cream in 2007, told Patch. "We don't have any signs in the store advertising the sundae, and it's not on the menu."

The only reference to the Cicada Sundae is an illustration of a cicada that a customer made and brought into the shop. The illustration now sits on Toby's ice cream counter.

“This past week has been unbelievable. Customers coming from all over DC, Maryland, and Virginia — Woodbridge, Rockville, Silver Spring, Tenleytown ... some driving an hour-plus during rush hour traffic, with kids in tow!” Toby’s said Tuesday in a Facebook post. “We’re grateful, exhausted, amazed, appreciative, humbled, overjoyed, astonished, euphoric, and just dog-tired!!!”

Toby's has sold about 800 Cicada Sundaes and has averaged about 100 sales per day over the past week. Friends have told Bantug he should jack up the price since it is such a hot seller. But Bantug said he has no intention of increasing the price from its current $7.86.

On Sunday, Bantug said he had to temporarily close the shop because he needed time to make some ice cream cakes and didn't have any staff to help out at the counter. When he reopened the shop at noon, there was a line of people waiting to get a Cicada Sundae.

Fans of the sundae are placing it next to real cicadas in the Arlington neighborhood and taking pictures. On its Facebook page, a country music radio station in Fredericksburg posted about the Cicada Sundae after learning about it on social media.

Bonnie Miller of radio station WFLS wrote on Tuesday: "On Friday, I saw Toby’s Homemade Ice Cream and Coffee Shop in Arlington was making and selling little ice creams shaped as Cicadas. I thought I could totally make that with my niece. I saw my niece and nephew this weekend at their new home in Richmond. After dinner, we had an ice cream party where we made the cicadas. The kids think the cicadas are gross, but they loved making this treat."

Bantug said he finds it flattering that families are copying his idea. "We've been having a good time with it," he said.

The Brood X cicadas are expected to die off by the end of June or early July. So, there's still plenty of time to visit Toby's at 5849 A Washington Blvd. in Arlington to taste the real version of the Cicada Sundae.