Celebrating National  Ice Cream Month with Local Shops and Restaurants

July 26, 2006
By Renee A. Shina

 Some could call this tantalizing delicacy the greatest edible time machine, a tribute to the past with every single bite. The classic flavors and the icy sting have the ability to send you back to childhood, hot summers, and the carefree realm between the end and beginning of the school year. Its cool, creamy texture and melt-over-your-fingers gooeyness has brought rise to many messy but happy faces and child-like grins. Yes, this could be none other than the cream of the crop, the best of the bunch, and the ultimate summer treat: ice cream. As it just so happens, July is official national ice cream month. To celebrate, the Penobscot Times has gone to three locally owned and well known ice cream shops, each with amazing stories to tell and wonderful frozen delights to sample.

The first of these three ice cream beauties is Governor’s restaurant, a family-friendly place that has attracted locals for years. In 1960, from only three hundred dollars and some rented land, Cree-mee’s ice cream stand was born and Leigh Wadleigh’s “puzzle piece” establishment took root. Wadleigh and his wife Donna had only an unreliable ice cream machine and a lot of debt, paying the bills by handing out soft serve ice cream in either chocolate or vanilla flavors. Cree-mee’s sold its smallest cone for a nickel and its sundaes for a quarter at most. Though there were many hardships, including a long period of no ice cream sales, long hour days with hardly any holidays, and at least two fires, the Wadleighs persevered and managed to make a memorable name for their little ice cream shanty.

Now a booming restaurant with more than just ice cream on the menu, Cree-mee’s has been renamed Governor’s after the usual greeting given by the forgetful former owners. “We couldn’t remember names, so we would just say ‘hey, Governor,’ instead,” Leigh Wadleigh explained. The name pretty well stuck, giving rise to a unique Maine franchise. Though it has moved on to bigger and better things, like the “Nor’easter” and a wonderful assortment of quality desserts, it still cannot forget its humble roots in those two glass windows and that old ice cream machine.

The next on the list of ice cream must-sees is a favorite nationwide, finding pride in its variety and a strange candy ice cream concoction known as a Blizzard. Yes, you guessed it – Dairy Queen. Situated in Old Town, this Dairy queen was built only nine years ago, but the first DQ was established in 1948. Despite being what some might consider an old contender in the ice cream world, Dairy Queen is still going strong serving four hundred to five hundred customers a day during the summer. That hardly compares to the special event in April called Customer Appreciation Day, as the amount of happy ice cream smiles can number a good fifteen hundred!

“Because we’re independent, we’ve always been very community-oriented,” the manager, Cathy, said to us in an interview. She went on to explain about the various support programs that Dairy Queen offers to local people, ranging from giving out coupons to hiring local people only. However, along with its community service, DQ offers monthly and weekly specials to its customers. The best selling product is certainly the Blizzard, and so Dairy Queen has devised a new flavor every month. This month it’s a delightful cheesecake Blizzard, a popular item with any fan of the creamy dessert, and a fitting tribute to the official ice cream month. With all these specials, dropping by their website (www.otdairyqueen.com) would be good advice, because you might just be able to “DQ something different” for less.

The last and certainly not the least of the ice cream palaces is Spencer’s Ice Cream in Bradley, currently owned by Matt Michaud. With a secret recipe that has been made for at least eighty to ninety years, this ice cream shop/ general store has been selling ice cream every day since it was offered. Always having at least fifteen flavors, Spencer’s prides itself in the variety and unique taste that you can find no where else. With flavors like bubble gum, root beer, orange pineapple, and chocolate peanut butter fudge, what child could resist the urge to buy a cone and make summer memories? Standing on tip toe to peek over the counter, eager and wide eyes can watch as their cone is sprinkled with jimmies, syrup, or anything they might enjoy.

The key to such success is small batches, a variety of ice cream and toppings, and their wonderful recipe. Paul Gallent, a former owner who started in 1980 and now is 70 years old, recalls his years selling ice cream. “Sixty years ago, a small cone was five cents and a double was ten. It went up to seven cents and fourteen cents and everybody had a fit!” Though the prices have changed considerably since then, it’s not stopping the many customers who return to sample their delicious variety, each and every flavor as ingenious as the last. All we need to wait for is chocolate peanut butter rhubarb. Now, that will be something to celebrate!