Courtesy | Dana Weidinger
On the first day of her senior year, Dana Weidinger finally completed her mission: try every flavor of ice cream at The Udder Side.
“When I first came to Hillsdale for my recruiting visit for softball, the team told me about this ice cream place in Jonesville, so I was like, ‘Alright mom and dad, we’re going to Udderside,’” Weidinger said. “I got cookie jar for my first ice cream there and I fell in love.”
With more than 36 hard ice cream flavors and a new soft serve flavor every week, Weidinger had a lot of sampling to do. She said cookie jar remains her favorite, with Michigan pothole in second and banana pudding in third.
“I got through most of the menu my freshman year because I was pretty stressed out and ice cream was the light at the end of the tunnel,” she said. “Now I’m just an expert. I can actually predict when they’re going to change the soft serve flavors.”
Weidinger’s friends and housemates said they’ve learned to trust her judgement when it comes to new foods and flavors.
“I can always count on her to give good recommendations about food in Hillsdale,” senior Julia Mullins said. “I’m not surprised she’s tried every flavor of ice cream because the freezer in our kitchen is always full of pints of different flavors.”
Beyond just sampling new food and restaurants, Weidinger is also an excellent baker, according to fellow teammate and fifth-year senior Sam Catron.
“She has such a gift for cooking and baking, I would trust her judgement any day when it comes to food,” Catron said. “My favorite thing she makes is her slutty brownies, which is an oreo sandwiched between two layers of cookies. There’s not a team bonding event that happens without Dana making her slutty brownies. It’s pretty much tradition.”
Weidinger is now in her fifth year at Hillsdale, after returning to campus to finish out her last year of eligibility on the softball team. With all of the Udder Side flavors sampled, she’s moving on into other areas of Hillsdale’s food culture, which she said she enjoys a lot more than the franchise-flooded options she has near her home in Akron, Ohio.
“The food culture back at home is more franchises instead of local restaurants or people who have lived here the whole time. Like Handmade — the owner grew up in Hillsdale, went to school in Hillsdale, and now works in Hillsdale,” she said. “Everything back home is mainstream. There’s everything you can get, but it all kinda tastes the same like you’re eating a franchise meal.”
Her new goal is to try all of the burgers at The Hunt Club. The pizza burger is her favorite so far.
“When I officially leave Hillsdale, I’ll probably just come back just for that,” she said.
She is also trying as many of the coffee and chai flavors as possible at Checker Records.
“Checkers has a bunch of different syrups and powders they put in everything,” Weidinger said. “I like trying new things a lot, so I get the things I normally wouldn’t order. And I usually get a coffee every day, so that’s been going really well.”
Outside of Hillsdale, some of Weidinger’s favorites include Rosalie’s and Saucy Dog’s in Jonesville. Beyond the food, however, Weidinger said Hillsdale and its surrounding area offers a unique dining experience.
“People have a very happy energy. All the people who wait on you are so happy and it just gives it that hometown feeling that makes you feel like family,” Weidinger said. “I even like that the restaurants are kind of small with their amount of tables. Rosalie’s literally looks like an old house. It’s like you’re walking in and sitting down for a family dinner.”