Jaxson’s served up more than ice cream

As founder of Jaxson’s Ice Cream Parlor in Dania Beach, Monroe Udell invented the Kitchen Sink, an Everest of ice cream. “We don’t really measure,” he told the Sun Sentinel in 2008. “We just pile it in.”

But his innovations went well beyond expanding the opportunities for human gluttony. When he opened the ice cream parlor on South Federal Highway in 1956, he surprised neighbors in segregated Broward County by hiring and serving black people. Last year, he voluntarily raised the minimum wage for employees to $10.10 (Florida’s was $7.93), earning recognition from President Obama.

Udell, who died last June at 86, was honored by Dania Beach, which named a street for him, and by Hollywood, which designated Jan. 4 Monroe Udell Day, in honor of his courageous racial policies and philanthropy.