Just about everyone loves ice cream, and that goes double when a heat dome drops over the country like a gigantic warm blanket that nobody requested.
But that rich scoop of cold, sweet delight becomes a lot less unanimous when it comes to the details: Favorite flavor? Traditional hard frozen and scoopable, soft serve, gelato, frozen custard, sherbet, sorbet, froyo, or something else? Cup or cone or take-home pint? And perhaps the most controversial question, which local shop is No. 1 for you?
Questions like these have been going on for a very long time. How long? Depending on how you define it, humankind has been enjoying something akin to ice cream for a couple of millennia or longer.
Ice cream's origins are known to reach back as far as the second century BCE, according to The International Dairy Foods Association, which may or may not be entirely disinterested. But, the organization admits, “no specific date of origin nor inventor has been undisputably credited with its discovery.”
Historians record early examples of famous ancient figures enjoying cold sweet treats: Alexander the Great purportedly enjoyed snow flavored with honey and nectar. The ancient Romans picked up on that, as the infamous Emperor Nero sent runners up to the nearby Apennines to bring back snow for his chefs to lace with fruits and juices.
Even the bible gets into the act, according to the Book of Proverbs, which declares, “Like a snow-cooled drink at harvest time is a trustworthy messenger to the one who sends him; he refreshes the spirit of his master.”
Okay, that’s pardon-the-expression cool. But it would be more than a few centuries before anything like ice cream as we know it would come about; and just as long before anyone who wasn’t an emperor or similar bigwig could enjoy some.
The story of ice cream is surrounded by a lot of tasty mythology. “Legend has all sorts of fanciful stories about Marco Polo bringing ice cream from China and Catherine de’ Medici introducing it to France and King Charles I having his own personal ice cream maker,” says The Ice Cream Alliance, the British trade association for ice cream makers and sellers.
But with stiff upper lip and admirable honesty, the organization goes for candor: “All wonderful stories, but sadly there is not a scrap of historic evidence to back up any of these legends. Marco Polo didn’t introduce either ice cream or pasta to Europe and worse still, he probably never even went to China. Most of these myths seem to have been introduced by the Victorians.”
So there we have it. Something like the real thing may in fact have been known in parts of Asia while Europe was laboring in the Dark Ages, even if Marco Polo never knew it. The breakthrough discovery was the fun fact that mixing salt into ice could reduce its freezing point from 32ºF to a chilly 7º, which is more than enough to churn cream and flavorings into a delicious summer treat.
It would be the 16th century, though, before this tasty parlor trick came to Europe, evolving across the continent from early adopters in royal courts in France and Italy.
And finally, in 1660, according to the international dairy foods group, ice cream finally came to the rest of us. This revelation boasted a French and Italian connection, as it was Procopio, a Sicilian in Paris, who introduced a frozen blend of milk, cream, butter and eggs at his Café Procope, the first Parisian café.
Soon it was everywhere, including, eventually, the U.S. that noted Francophile and notorious enslaver Thomas Jefferson famously served ice cream at the then-new White House. It’s not known whether he allowed his enslaved laborers a scoop of the cold stuff during breaks in the fields at Monticello, but we doubt it.
Soob ice cream became widespread, cooled by blocks of ice and, eventually, mechanical refrigeration. Around the turn of the 20th century, inventors in New York City and at the St. Louis World’s Fair invented the cone, making ice cream a portable treat. The rest, of course, is history, right down through Howard Johnson’s 28 flavors, Baskin-Robbins’ 31 and more, to today’s wealth of artisanal and industrial brands.
Nowadays there’s such a galaxy of styles and flavors that you can find a match for just about every taste. According to the global industry research firm IBISWorld, there were 17,059 ice-cream store businesses in the U.S. in 2023, an increase of 1.6% from 2022 despite the intervening pandemic. That includes at least 24 in Louisville, according to LEO Weekly’s recent overview, The 24 Best Local Louisville Ice-Cream Shops.
LEO’s list included some popular soft-serve vendors, and while I won’t argue that soft-serve isn’t real ice cream, I’ll stand firm on my personal preference for the traditional scoopable style. Another day I might take a look at Dairy Del, Dairy Kastle, Polly’s Freeze and other local soft-serve destinations, but for now, let’s applaud five local traditional scoop vendors and one espresso shop that make us happy.
Listed alphabetically, they are:
Comfy Cow: 1301 Herr Lane in Westport Village (425-4979, thecomfycow.com), and other locations in Middleton and the Paddock Shops.
Ehrler's Ice Cream: 201 E. Main St., 749-2236, and 2500 Bardstown Road, ehrlers.com)
Gelato Gilberto: 9434 Norton Commons Blvd., 423-7751, and 2240 Frankfort Ave. (422-0908, gelatogilberto.com)
Graeter’s: This regional chain bosts 56 locations including six in the Louisville area. You’ll usually find us at the St. Matthews shop. (140 Breckenridge Lane, 896-9952, graeters.com)
Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen: This local chain has about eight shops in Kentucky and Indiana. I’m still fond of the original venue: (2525 Bardstown Road, 459-8184, piekitchen.com)
Louisville Cream: You’ll find this premium small-batch shop’s artisinal goodies by the point at local gourmet shops and its scoop shop in Nulu: (632 E Market St., 882-1516, louisvillecream.com)
