Ox and Rabbit Soda and Sundries

What it is: The Ox and Rabbit is a soda shop complete with authentic soda fountain in combination with a unique gift shop.  It's located on Ninth St. near Duke.  Apparently, it used to be a drug store, then a McDonalds, and most recently it sat empty for several years.  Two years ago it opened back up as The Ox and Rabbit with a unique mix of historical charm and modern gifts.

We headed up there a few days ago to get a sweet treat.  You can sit at the counter and get a shake, malt, or float in a variety of flavors.  While there weren't a huge variety of flavors, the ones they did have sounded fantastic.  They even had three different kinds of chocolate to choose from for our milkshake, and I chose the chocolate truffle flavor for my son and I.  Since the drinks are all made on the spot, they can be customized as well.  For example, they told me I could add some raspberry flavor to my chocolate milkshake if I wanted it.  Yum!  It sounded tempting, but I went with the straight chocolate.  We then were able to sit and enjoy it while watching the man behind the counter make the shakes and observing all the unique gifts in the rest of the store.

What we liked: We loved the traditional homemade treat options, they were delicious.  Being able to snack at an authentic soda fountain was a lot of fun.  They also had small little chairs shaped like eggs for my toddler since the bar stools at the counter were so tall.  He could sit in the chair and then close a canopy completely over him so he was sitting completely in an egg.  He thought they were quite entertaining.  The gifts also looked interesting and would have been great to browse had I been toddler-free. 

In addition, we're finding that Ninth St. is a great location to take the kids to.  In addition to The Ox and Rabbit, you could stop by other kid-friendly locations such as The Playhouse Toystore, Blue Corn Cafe, Francesca's, Elmo's and other great locations we just haven't gotten around to stopping by yet.


What we would change: Although it was great to have the gifts in the store as well, it also made it hard to dine with a toddler.  I had to watch him to make sure that he wasn't grabbing every gift he could get his hands on.  In addition, the seats at the counter were pretty tall so they were hard for a toddler to get on and stay on.  The egg seats were interesting for a while, but the seating arrangements didn't keep his attention for long, and he was up wandering the store most of the time we were there.

Important information: 

*We could not locate a website for them.

Address: 732 9th St, Durham, NC 27705

Phone Number: (919) 286-7850

Hours: Tue-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 12pm-5pm

Photos: 

1. Our view while sitting at the counter

2. A view of the selection at the back of the store

3. The unassuming exterior