Scarborough, Maine: Lenny the Chocolate Moose

A life-size moose, sculpted in solid chocolate -- and that's a lot of chocolate -- stands in an ice cream parlor.

For 25 years Lenny the Chocolate Moose has defied summertime heat and sweet-toothed tourists tempted to take a bite. Unveiled on July 1, 1997, the life-size moose was sculpted out of nearly a ton of milk chocolate by Zdeno Mayercak (it took him a month), and stands inside a Maine ice cream shop. One of the store clerks told us, when we first visited in 2001, that the temperature surrounding Lenny can never rise above 70 degrees Fahrenheit, which, despite global warming, is not really a problem in an ice cream shop in Maine. We wondered if Zdeno might have been tempted to sculpt Maine's other signature animal, the lobster, but this was dismissed by the employees we spoke with. A quarter-century of Lenny's continued popularity shows that Zdeno's chocolate choice was the correct one.

The store has a video that plays non-stop, showing the making of the Moose and bears.

I had to make a good-sized detour on my road trip in Maine to see Lenny, and I am glad I did.

He still looks good after all these years. When I asked how they kept him and his little bear friends so fresh-looking, the clerk explained that each year they all get a new coating of a high-sugar chocolate! Lenny has his own little corral near the kitchen, and there's plenty of signage that explains all about him.

What a great place! Lenny the Chocolate Moose has Libby the bear friend and her 2 cubs, Cocoa and Chip!