Here's the Scoop
Subscribe Now!Nebraskans beat heat at cool ice cream shops
Cornhusker State residents know a thing or two about keeping cool. Lemonade, iced tea or a tall glass of cold water are staples, but nothing snaps a Nebraska heat wave like ice cream. With community-minded ice cream proprietors setting up shop from one end of the state to the other, Nebraskans have it made in the shade when stricken with a chronic ice cream craving.
Coneflower Creamery
Omaha
The City of Omaha’s Public Works Department employees work up a sweat removing snow from more than 4,500 miles of streets during winter. Come summer, that pavement really holds the heat in. When the sun sinks and the heat dissipates, residents venture outside to cool off.
A line forms out the front door of Coneflower Creamery on sultry summer nights in Omaha’s artsy NoDo (North Downtown) district. Founder Brian Langbehn knows sweet. His culinary climb began at the Chicago dessert nightclub, Sugar, where he learned to make ice cream. He later spent a summer cooking on Italy’s Amalfi Coast, treating himself to gelato daily. While working as executive chef at 801 Chophouse in Omaha’s Old Market,
Langbehn shared with an employee his dream of opening an ice cream shop that used fresh, local ingredients.
Years later, that employee, Katie Arant Chapman, was cooking in California’s Napa Valley when she received a voicemail from Langbehn. He was finally ready to dip into the ice cream business, so she moved back to Nebraska to co-found Coneflower Creamery (that’s a double dip!)
Coneflower Creamery’s “farm-to-cone” philosophy means sourcing in-season fruit and other fresh ingredients from Nebraska farms – milk from a Hartington dairy, root beer from an Omaha brewery, aronia berries from an Omaha farm – and produce from family farms across the Mighty Mo in Iowa. This freshness is critical to producing ice cream much more flavorful than mass produced cold concoctions.
Coneflower Creamery’s other location is in Omaha’s Blackstone District, home of the historic Blackstone Hotel where the Reuben sandwich was invented. Another luscious legend credits the same hotel as the birthplace of Butter Brickle ice cream.
Collectively, according to Langbehn, Coneflower Creamery’s Blackstone Butter Brickle – a delectable distraction including chocolate covered house-made toffee – is Omaha’s favorite ice cream flavor. Milk it, Omaha. Milk it.
Ivanna Cone
Lincoln
Seems appropriate that Lincoln’s iconic Creamery Building is home to a world-class ice cream shop.
When we wrote about this ice cream landmark in 2008, this delicious destination in Lincoln’s Historic Haymarket had just celebrated a decadent decade in business. Quality ice cream and community-mindedness has helped the business thrive now for more than a quarter of a century. But the crew here – they call themselves “Coneheads” – are not set in their ways.
Every batch begins with their 14% butterfat sweet cream vanilla base. From there, 17 varieties fill the menu most days. Much like a craft brewery, each batch is unique. Of the hundreds of varieties that Ivanna Cone has produced, they say that only about 30 recipes are written down. Even those can vary depending on the mood of the Conehead-in-Chief.
The ice creams, ice milks, sherbets and dairy-free sorbets made at Ivanna Cone are produced in a pair of ice cream freezers just inside the front door. They aren’t ancient, but the salt used to make the ice cream has given the freezers an antique-like patina.
As if additional reasons are needed for getting ice cream, Ivanna Cone creates promotions to benefit breast cancer and ALS research, and partners with Make-A-Wish Nebraska, Give to Lincoln Day and other causes, and gives away tons of free tickets to Lincoln’s co-ed No Coast Roller Derby league matches.
A popular Ivanna Cone collaboration with Haymarket restaurant, Leadbelly, is an ice cream sandwich featuring a chocolate chip, candied bacon cookie with peanut butter, raspberry and jalapeño ice cream in the center.
Ivanna Cone’s walk-up window in the alley has a special menu including Spumoni Ice Cream Sandwich, the Spicy Mango Lassi Popsicle and Ice Cream Bon Bons. Ivanna Cone’s Ice Cream Flights feature six mini scoops served in what looks like a small egg carton – but for ice cream. Utterly yummy. Oh, and new for 2024 – Dorthy Lynch carrot cake ice cream. Classically Nebraska. Yes, please!
The Hub
Burwell
When H.J. “Pard” Coffin opened his three-story general store in Burwell in 1906, he wanted it to be the hub of commerce for a 60-mile radius. There were dentist and doctors’ offices, Burwell’s first library and first telephone company, an Odd Fellows Hall, and the place even offered its own brand of shoes. Coffin’s great-grandson, John Schere, told us, “It was the Walmart of its day.”
After growing up in Burwell, leaving, and living elsewhere for decades, Schere moved home in 2006 and bought his great-grandfather’s building. After undertaking repairs and renovations, Schere and his wife, Melissa, opened The Hub.
Shakes and other ice cream treats flow from the 1953 Bastian Blessing Co. soda fountain. The Scheres also whip up baked goods, smoothies, teas and coffee drinks, and Polish dogs, hot dogs and other lunchtime goodies. Local products fill shelves. The Burwell Tribune newspaper office is upstairs, and the Holy Heifer & Co. boutique fills the adjoining storefront.
On a recent Saturday morning at The Hub, visitors were perusing the Scheres’ antiques, residents were sipping morning coffee and girls from the Burwell Longhorns high school volleyball team were having a Bible study – complete with smoothies, coffee and ice cream. Truly the tasty hub of the community.
Grandma’s Playhouse and Ice Cream Shoppe
Wood Lake
Passing by on U.S. Highway 20 at 65 mph, motorists could blink and miss Wood Lake. Fifty-one residents live in the Cherry County village. Ten times that number called Wood Lake home a century ago, but Wood Lake residents still enjoy the good life one refreshingly cold spoonful at a time.
Resident Norma Cozad amped up the flavor of Wood Lake by opening Grandma’s Playhouse and Ice Cream Shoppe in 2005, the fruition of a lifelong dream of owning a store from which to sell her handicrafts.
Cozad, a retired postal worker, sells ice cream, cold drinks and her homemade baked goods. She jars her own sweet pickled relish and heats things up with her cranberry jalapeño and other jellies. She opens early for morning coffee daily except Sunday.
This ice cream hobbyhorse is no cash cow – Cozad is all about contributing to her community. Cozad’s dedication to Wood Lake means more than crafting and scooping. She also serves Wood Lake American Legion Auxiliary Unit 202 – as the membership chairperson, the secretary, treasurer and the president! On top of that, like the cherry punctuating one of her specialty ice cream sundaes, Cozad is secretary of the Wood Lake Union Church.
Nebraskans statewide can bring home a taste of Grandma’s Playhouse and Ice Cream Shoppe by stopping by Cozad’s booth at local craft fairs and festivals. Homemade jellies, jams, relish and, of course, ice cream toppings anxiously await a loving home with a freezer full of ice cream.
CaLinda’s Pot Shop & Art Gallery
Ashby
The distance between communities is substantial along portions of Nebraska Highway 2. If you’re driving west, or east, on a hot summer day with heat waves shimmering from the asphalt and your throat parched, you might start hankering for some cold ice cream at, oh, about Ashby.
Travelers capture the Sandhills in photos. Artist Linda Lacy portrays the region on canvas and in clay. She displays her creativity in downtown Ashby, an unincorporated community in Grant County that Lacy said has about 40 residents, “if you count cats and dogs.”
Visitors view her work at the former cafe known now as CaLinda’s Pot Shop & Art Gallery – the moniker a combination of the artist’s first name and that of her BNSF Railway retiree husband, Cal.
The vintage wooden booths serve as display space for Lacy’s art, so customers sit at tables, at the counter or on the Party Porch as coal trains roar by. Being a good Sandhills neighbor, Lacy makes drink deliveries to Hyannis, nine miles to the east, most Wednesdays.
Lacy’s award-winning works of art reveal ranch scenes, windmills and Sandhills flora and fauna. The clay wine coozies that she throws on a potter’s wheel in the back of her shop are one of her most popular items. Though no medicinal herbs are available at the curiously named shop (it’s not that far west), in addition to paintings, pottery, coffee, smoothies and ice cream, Lacy hosts kid’s birthday parties, Fun in the Mud pottery workshops and Sip and Stroke painting events where patrons bring their beverages of choice and learn to paint.
The Soapweed Squeeze, named for the yucca plants found in the Sandhills surrounding Ashby, is a colorful ice cream treat and culinary work of art served in an antique soda fountain glass. Lacy said that each one includes a burst of flavor and a “prickly Sandhills surprise.”
Dannebrog Delights
Dannebrog
The Danish Capital of Nebraska has been a culinary destination for decades due to the Danish Bakery’s famous pizzas every Thursday night. But the community in Howard County is also known for dessert thanks to an ice cream proprietor intent on giving back to his adopted hometown one community-minded scoopful at a time.
The Danes aren’t necessarily known for their ice cream. Abelskiver, yes, ice cream, no. Danish pancakes aside, ice cream cafe owner Tim Hannibal is a proud Dane. Hoping to instill community pride in area youth, Hannibal used social media to issue a challenge: pick up discarded aluminum cans from along rural roadsides and receive a free scoop of ice cream – 10 cans minimum.
The parade of kids carrying bags of dented, dirty and dingy cans up the front steps of his shop brings a smile to Hannibal’s face and has made roadside litter rare near Dannebrog to the point where the children are now scavenging litter from lakes, rivers and recreation areas. The idea was inspired by a visit Hannibal made to Dannebrog while living and working in California before moving here in 2016.
“I could not believe the amount of litter in the ditches,” said Hannibal, the sixth-generation great-great-great grandson of Lars Hannibal, who founded Dannebrog in 1871. “Now, when the kids come in for their free scoop, I see it in their smiling faces that they are proud of themselves.”
Scooping ice cream smiles is gratifying for the former heavy civil construction management engineer who built bridges, dams, railroads and other transportation infrastructure across California while living in the hectic Interstate 15 corridor between Los Angeles and San Diego. Board games, other games and art supplies – some provided by Hannibal, others donated by area residents – occupy families eating their desserts or waiting for orders. The activity room is wallpapered a rumored 17 layers deep with handmade art. Hannibal scans the room and smiles. Stress, if there could possibly be any, melts away while wielding a cold ice cream scoop and dishing out joy to children and ice cream lovers of all ages.
Hannibal’s adopted hometown loves him back. While helping a neighbor paint, Hannibal fell from a roof and broke an arm, a leg, and lost vision in his left eye. After medical treatment which included being flown to Omaha and being hospitalized for weeks, Hannibal returned home to find that a ramp had been built so he could get his wheelchair in and out of his house. Locals put on a fundraiser to help pay for medical bills.
“I was in that wheelchair for three weeks and didn’t have to cook once,” Hannibal said. “The people here brought me food every day. That was so awesome.”
Dannebrog is in good hands, ice cream and aluminum cans alike.
Potter Sundry
Potter
Having ice cream close at hand must be mandatory in a community that claims, “It’s Hotter in Potter.” But the Cheyenne County community’s most flavorful claim to fame is served in a tall, glass dish.
The Potter Sundry building is owned by the Potter Historical Foundation. Established as the Potter Drug Co. in 1914, confectionery history was made here in the 1930s. While working for his pharmacist father, young soda jerk Harold Thayer – better known as “Pinky” due to his bright red hair and bubbly attitude – was known for creating crazy sundaes at will.
There was the short-lived Blitzer, and the all-but-forgotten Zombie. But Pinky whipped up a cool mixture that became a national flavor sensation and stuck like a scoop of vanilla to a thick, cold spoon – the Tin Roof Sundae.
“The Tin Roof Sundae is what we are known for, and it still attracts tourists from all over the country to Potter yet today,” said Missy Marsh, who owns the restaurant and ice cream shop in the Potter Sundry building. “Lots of companies make and sell Tin Roof flavored ice cream, but we are the proud original.”
Marsh hears from lots of visitors who remember the old days when Potter’s Tin Roof Sundae was 25 cents. Today, the mini will set ice cream fans back $5.50, the Classic is $7.50, and foodies with bulging appetites will fork, er, spoon over $9.50 for the Large.
This sundae is a beautiful thing to behold with scoops of vanilla and chocolate ice cream in the glass, a generous sprinkling of Spanish peanuts, and a pleasantly profuse topping of chocolate syrup and marshmallow syrup – some of which is bound to run down the side and hit the soda fountain counter if not caught by a spoon or excited tongue. Don’t worry; more chocolate syrup awaits between its vanilla and chocolate scoops. Competing legends claim that Pinky named the sundae after the Sundry’s tin roof or its now covered tin ceiling, or even the roof of a nearby livery stable.
Nebraska State Senator Steve Erdman, who represents District 47, which includes Potter, has nominated the Tin Roof Sundae as Nebraska’s Official State Sundae. The resolution never advanced out of committee. Potter’s (and Nebraska’s) famous Tin Roof Sundae has our vote.
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