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A traditional banana split as served at Cabot's Ice Cream and Restaurant in Newtonville, Massachusetts.

A banana split is an ice cream-based dessert. In its classic form it is served in a long dish called a "boat". A banana is cut in two lengthwise (hence the split) and laid in the dish. Variations abound, but the classic banana split is made with scoops of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream served in a row between the split banana. Pineapple topping is spooned over the vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup over the chocolate, and strawberry topping over the strawberry. It is garnished with crushed nuts, whipped cream and maraschino cherries.

A man named David Strickler was a drugstore soda jerk in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. The city celebrated the 100th anniversary of the invention of the banana split in 2004. Strickler is credited as the inventor of the banana-based triple ice cream sundae in Michael Turback's The Banana Split Book.^{[citation needed]}

A year or two later, historians say, a Boston ice cream entrepreneur came up with the same sundae--with one minor flaw. He served his banana splits with the bananas unpeeled until he discovered that ladies preferred them peeled.^{[citation needed]}

Town fathers in Wilmington, Ohio, claim their city, southeast of Dayton, is the birthplace of the popular treat. They say 1907 was the year and restaurant owner Ernest Hazard was the man. The town commemorates the event each June with a Banana Split Festival.^{[citation needed]}

According to town lore,^{[citation needed]} Hazard wanted to attract fickle students from Wilmington College during the slow days of winter. He staged an employee contest to come up with a new ice cream dish. When none of his workers was up to the task, he split a banana lengthwise, threw it into an elongated dish and created his own dessert.

Walgreen's is credited with spreading the popularity of the banana split. Charles Walgreen adopted the banana split as the signature dessert in the chain of drugstores he founded in Chicago.^{[citation needed]}

Dairy Queen alone sells about 25 million banana splits each year. The ice cream store giant uses only vanilla in its splits.

The world's longest Banana Split was created in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania in 1988. The treat measured 4.55 miles long and is recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records.

• History of individual ingredients in banana split
• Cooking recipe with photo