Anthony Parks and John McDonald started as work friends, both working at the Ice Cream Parlour Restaurant in downtown Southern Pines since 2011. As happens at work, the two quickly realized a shared love of music and formed a band called Dirt Road Senate.

Over the years, for practice, maybe more for the joy of it, McDonald and Parks began bringing their guitars to work and playing out in the morning sun before opening the shop. The two also began playing acoustic gigs as a duo. They would always invite fellow musicians to their morning sessions. “No better way to start the day than playing and hearing live music,” they say.

In December of 2022, the dirt road duo was playing the wine cellar, and after playing a show herself, Katie Wyatt sat down with some friends (one of whom was Parks’ wife, Dixie) for a glass of wine.

Now, you may know Wyatt from her public-facing persona as executive director of the Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, but she’s been pursuing music since the third grade. She’s toured internationally with orchestras and string quartets, performed with the NC Symphony and NC Opera and is currently the principal viola of the Carolina Philharmonic Orchestra.

As musicians do, she felt the pull of the tunes from McDonald and Parks that evening at the Wine Cellar, and the duo invited Wyatt up to join them on an original song. It felt right, they “all looked at each other after and smiled,” says Parks.

They’ve since formed their new band, Ice Cream for Breakfast, and twice a week, the morning sessions have become practice for the three. That instant connection translated into five original songs that they love to play out around the area.

They still play the Wine Cellar, along with many other venues, but the morning sessions are the sweetest. Their indulgence. Their “ice cream for breakfast.” It’s a dream that we all have from a young age, and for this trio, the dream has come true.