Ice Chest -- has anyone ever tried this?

Interesting question from a chemistry perspective. Salt lowers the freezing point of water, so it will melt the ice, but forces the ice to draw energy - heat - for the phase change. The result is colder water/ice - ergo, colder drinks since the heat was drawn from it. Funny when you think about it, we use salt to melt ice on roads. The result is water that is colder than the ice. But yes it will work.