Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
For much of its history, Leopold’s Ice Cream has had its gaze firmly turned toward the past, from its retro décor to white-collared soda jerks to the original recipes for ice cream, fudges and toppings.
But now, as the establishment prepares to celebrate its 95th birthday, owner and second generation ice cream mogul Stratton Leopold is looking toward the future.
“The two things we’re in the midst of doing is building a creamery … and we’re redoing the original store at Gwinnett and Habersham,” said Leopold. “The sign’s not up yet.”
The production creamery will be at 37th and Price streets, not too far from the original Leopold’s, and will allow the ice cream shop to make and store more ice cream than their current capacity, a 6-by-8-foot freezer.
The handmade, small batch tradition will not change with the bigger facility, said Leopold, and inclusions such as chocolate chips and fruit will still be folded in by hand.
“We’ll never compromise quality, but that will enable us to make a little bit more and store a little bit more,” he said. “Here, we have a tiny little freezer, so as we’re making ice
cream, the next day we’re selling ice cream — we just can’t keep up.”
The expanded production facility will also serve a new mail-order business for people who crave a pint of Tutti Frutti or Lemon Custard across the country. In fact, Leopold has shipped his ice cream before but to a particularly noteworthy customer.
“I shipped to Tom Cruise in England for Thanksgiving, but that’s the only overseas we’ve done,” said Leopold, who still produces movies when he’s not at the shop. “We get emails several times a week, ‘Do you ship? Do you ship?’ And we kept all the names and emails.”
The key to shipping ice cream, according to Leopold, is a sturdy Styrofoam box, dry ice and FedEx or UPS.
He said he expects to have the creamery and the mail-order portion up and running in a few months, but the original Leopold’s location will take a little bit longer to open.
He said his vision for original space is to make it into a hangout like it was during its heyday in the ‘40s and ‘50s, when his father, Peter, and his uncles were still running it. Savannah Tech recently rehabbed the original Leopold’s sign at Habersham and Gwinnett, which will be rehung by the fall.
He said he also wants to gear the store at Gwinnett and Habersham toward receptions and parties because their Broughton Street location has become too busy to close for private events.
“There, historically, since 1920, we were a hangout for Benedictine cadets. There were two major schools that were huge rivals: Benedectine and Savannah High,” said Leopold. “So the Savannah High kids hung out at Paul’s Soda Shop on Bull Street, but that’s no longer there.”
“The rivalry between the shops was geared to the schools, so what we’ll do on Habersham is we’ll make it more Savannah,” he said. “Yes, we’ll have some influence of film, but being a packrat, I have my uniforms from B.C. and we’ll put up photographs from the old days.”
Meanwhile, Leopold’s 95th birthday bash starts today at 11 a.m. and will have storytellers, dance performances, 95-cent single scoops and a cake cutting at 3 p.m.
Leopold, who reopened the shop with his wife Mary in 2004 after a decades-long hiatus, said he’s still surprised to see how much his shop resonates with visitors and locals.
“I was doing a movie in England, and on weekends, I would go to book stores and would invariably look at travel book and look at Savannah,” said Leopold. “In probably over half of the ones that mentioned Savannah, they mentioned Leopold’s, which was incredible.”
Incredible, but not too surprising for a place regularly described as a Savannah institution. Asked for his take on what makes a place an institution, Leopold sums it up succinctly:
“It’s probably a combination of a classic product that hasn’t changed over the decades — that will never change — and that makes people happy,” he said.
IF YOU GO
Leopold’s 95th Birthday Block Party
When: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Aug. 16
Where: 212 E. Broughton Street
More info at leopoldsicecream.com