Local ice cream shops offer sweet relief from the heat

With this summer’s heat waves and occasional power outages, local ice cream shops have been weathering the positives and negatives of the hot temperatures and making the most of the summer season. 

“We hit our busiest week that we’ve ever had in the shop’s history,” Evie Morse, shift lead at Purity Ice Cream in Ithaca, said of one busy week in early July.

For an ice cream shop with a history in Ithaca that dates back to 1936, that is saying a lot.

“We could hit those numbers again this summer,” Morse said. “It tends to stay pretty busy until Labor Day.”

At Scoops of Lansing, Laura Morse (no relation to Evie Morse) said that in May she had a record-breaking day of her own.

Scoops hosted an event with 25% of all proceeds donated to Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, flood relief, as the catastrophic flooding affected the family of a Lansing community member who is from Brazil.

“That day was record-breaking,” Laura said. “A lot of people came out for that, and donated money for that. So that was really nice.”

Since buying the ice cream shop seven years ago, Laura said she has had a steady customer base. Outside of the fundraiser, business this year has been about the same as the years before. 

In Trumansburg, Rob Farrell and his family have simplified the stand’s menu and offer unique new food offerings at Ice Cream Bar, which will also eventually feature beer and wine, Farrell said.

“We kept many of the menu items, but we did pare things back and simplify things. We made the new menu board easy to read, too,” Farrell told Tompkins Weekly earlier this summer. “We also let go of some of the things that were a little bit older school.”

One of the new offerings that has been a hit with customers is the Gimme! Coffee milkshake, which is made with coffee from the popular local roastery. 

The Frosty Cow in Dryden is utilizing social media to promote its summer “In Our Eras Season” specials. Every week, the ice cream stand has a new, special flavor that represents an “era” inspired by a Taylor Swift lyric.

Evie theorized that the uptick in sales at Purity might have to do with selling food. 

“We started selling hotdogs for the Fourth of July, so that might be part of it,” she said. 

Purity changed hands to local restaurateur Kevin Sullivan in 2021, and the new owners have been adding more menu items over time.

Purity recently added a kitchen where employees can make burgers, chicken nuggets, fries and other hot food. 

Purity also has breakfast all day, seven days a week, and is open from 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

“Customers appreciate the consistent schedule,” Morse said. “We have customers who come in bright and early at 7:30 a.m. and buy dry ice for traveling. Some people buy prepackaged ice cream or [32-ounce] monster milkshakes.” Morse said that some people order the milkshakes to start off their day.  

The heat wave of early July drove business up for local shops and ice cream stands, as well.

“The hotter weeks have definitely been quite a bit busier,” Evie said.

Every month, Purity offers a special flavor and dedicates a portion of the proceeds to a local nonprofit. The organization even gets to choose the recipe.

The shop also offers an Expedition Sundae: eight scoops of ice cream of your choice, three sauces and four toppings, topped off with whipped cream and eight cherries.

“Families come in and get one, and sometimes people come in and eat them by themselves,” Evie said. “Sometimes college athletes who’ve just come back from a practice or a game will get one.”

As far as flavors go, Purity has a large selection to choose from. Evie recommends the chocolate raspberry truffle, one of her personal favorites. “It’s so good,” she said.

She also recommends customers try the Apple Crisp sundae with Bulldog Crunch ice cream, which is praline ice cream with caramel and Heath bar.

Longtime Purity customer Julie Mathes said that by far her favorite flavor is Bittersweet. She has made the vanilla ice cream with bittersweet chocolate bits her regular order since she was a child. “It’s like shaved chocolate bits instead of chunks,” she explained. Mathes now lives in Florida with her family but has a tradition of trips back to the Finger Lakes, and the trip always involves a detour into Ithaca: “Bittersweet ice cream by the lake. We’ve been eating it for a long time,” Mathes said.

In Lansing, regulars at Scoops have traditions of their own. Being located near Lansing Center Trail, hikers and parents walking with their children often stop into Scoops for a treat.

“Before I owned [Scoops], that’s what I did with my kids — go for a walk and then go get ice cream,” said Laura, whose children are now 12 and 15.

Employee Dean Rigdon, a Lansing High School graduate who just returned to Scoops for the summer after his freshman year at college, said he enjoys seeing people he knows from school (many of whom drop in for a scoop after sports practice), as well as the regulars, many of them retired, who make it part of their daily schedule to come by for a treat.

Rigdon recommends the soft serve.

“I like the soft serve the best because it’s not [regular] soft serve; it’s custard,” he said. “It’s a lot better than a normal soft serve.”

This summer, there have been some challenges, though Laura said she is taking them in stride.

“The price of everything is going up,” she said. “I know that’s a huge challenge for everybody.”

That includes price increases not just for ice cream but for napkins, bowls and other expenses as well, she said.

There have also been some nerve-wracking power outages, during which Laura relies on a generator to keep her inventory from melting.

“That’s always scary,” she said. “But it happens every summer.”

Laura likes to have menu items that set the ice cream shop apart from others.

“We try to have specials every week, just something a little different to keep it interesting,” she said. “We also have cherry Coke floats on the menu.”

Tompkins County ice cream places to try this summer: 

Cayuga Lake Creamery at The Dewitt Mall
215 N Cayuga St., Ithaca
(607) 227-3987

Cornell Dairy Bar
411 Tower Rd., Stocking Hall, Ithaca
(607) 255-7660

Dennis’ Homemade Ice Cream
1076 Elmira Rd., Newfield
(607) 793-1360

Dryden Creamery
62 W Main St., Dryden
(607) 708-4054

Frosty Cow
5 Livermore Crossing, Dryden
(607) 745-7725

Ice Cream Bar
207 E. Main St., Trumansburg
(607) 387-9656

Ice Cream Caboose
180 W South St, Groton
(607) 898-5900

LakeBreeze Ice Cream
2035 E. Shore Dr., Lansing
(607) 533-3552

Purity Ice Cream
700 Cascadilla St, Ithaca
(607) 272-1545

Scoops of Lansing
104 Auburn Rd, Lansing

Sweet Melissa’s Ice Cream Shop
200 W Seneca St., Ithaca
(607) 277-0090

Toad’s Too Ice Cream Oasis
18 Railroad St., Freeville
(607) 844-6167

Trimmers Ice Cream
9833 NY-96, Trumansburg
(607) 387-3993