These Retro Ice Cream Shops Deserved A Longer Life

It's getting harder to find an old-school ice cream parlor. As Americans eat less ice cream, shops are closing up or merging with bigger brands that can help them stay in business. There are still a handful of nearly 100-year-old ice cream shops, like Bassetts Ice Cream in Philadelphia or Fenton's Creamery in Oakland. Sadly, though, many mom-and-pop parlors and ice cream chains have had to shut their doors for good. 

Shops that opened in the ice cream booms of the Prohibition and post-World War II eras began to lose ground in the 1980s, as consumers opted for lower-fat frozen treats like gelato, smoothies, or frozen yogurt. Many changed owners, rebranded, or shifted to producing ice cream by the carton to keep the business afloat just a little longer, but ultimately had to close.

I scream, you scream, we all scream because we'll never get to go to these incredible retro ice cream parlors, closed before their time. Instead, indulge in the nostalgia and marvel at the creativity and effort these ice cream makers took to keep their stores alive. In their honor, find your nearest ice cream shop and eat a scoop of your favorite flavor.

Known for its birthday parties and 1910s-inspired decor, Farrell's is one of the most beloved retro ice cream shops in the United States. The Portland-based chain was founded in 1963 by Bob Farrell and Ken McCarthy, who grew the shop with the promise of a free ice cream sundae for children on their birthday. By 1970, there were 58 Farrell's locations, and at its peak, the chain had 130 ice cream shops operating under its name.

Farrell's made enormous ice cream sundaes, some so large they needed two workers, decked out in pinstripe vests and straw boater hats, to carry them to your table. The most iconic of these concoctions was the Zoo, weighing a whopping 8 ½ pounds and containing several kinds of ice cream, sherbet, and loads of syrup and toppings. You could also attempt the cherry–and-butterscotch Gibson Girl or the Pike's Peak with five kinds of ice cream and a "marshmallow glacier," according to a vintage Farrell's menu. These massive sundaes were meant to be shared, but if you made it through the Pig Trough, a double banana split, alone, then you'd get a special prize.

In 1972, Bob Farrell sold the chain to Marriott, and 10 years later, Marriott sold Farrell's to private investors. By 1990, most Farrell's locations had closed, though some locations continued to operate independently. The last Farrell's in Brea, California, closed in 2019.

One of Chicago's most famous ice cream shops was The Buffalo Ice Cream Parlor, or simply "The Buffalo," as locals referred to it. It originally opened in 1902, and in 1918, it moved to its longtime location on Irving Park Road. The shop had an elegant, old-school feel, with dark wooden booths and a sleek marble counter, as well as a classic menu: banana splits, hot fudge sundaes, chocolate malts, and soda floats, along with diner fare.

Generations of Chicagoans went there to hang out with friends, go on dates, or take their kids for a scoop of the ice cream they loved as children. But in 1973, The Buffalo suddenly announced it would have to close. The shop couldn't get a new lease due to plans to rezone the land and turn it into a gas station. Hundreds of people protested, and The Buffalo was given a second chance. It stayed in the Irving Park location until 1978, when it lost the lease to the gas station for good.

That wasn't the end of The Buffalo, however. It operated as a restaurant and ice cream parlor on the outskirts of Chicago for a few more decades, but customers said it was never quite the same as its original location. The Buffalo ended its 120-year history in early 2025, when it closed for good.

Brigham's Ice Cream was a Boston-area staple for much of the 20th century. Founded in 1914, it gained popularity by offering large portions of rich and flavorful ice cream. The generous 20-cent sundaes could draw so many people that local police were on hand for crowd control. Brigham's survived the Great Depression by accepting IOUs as payment, and in the '60s, it was able to expand to 100 locations.

An early pioneer in unique ice cream flavors and mix-ins, Brigham developed fan favorites like peppermint stick and mocha almond. In the '80s, it started selling quarts of ice cream in grocery stores to keep the company afloat as store locations declined. The brand even produced special Boston-themed flavors, including the Big Dig, a vanilla ice cream with brownie chunks and caramel, inspired by Boston's most infamous construction project, or a raspberry lime rickey sherbet inspired by the iconic Northeast beverage that Brigham's was famous for serving.

HP Hood bought Brigham's in 2007, and most locations closed after the brand declared bankruptcy in 2009. The last four Brigham's locations were forced to rebrand in 2013, when Hood decided to stop making parlor-sized cartons of ice cream. Today, Brigham's lives on in the freezer aisle of Massachusetts supermarkets, where customers can still buy tubs of their favorite flavors, made just like they were at the ice cream parlor. 

Nau's Enfield Drug was a true retro drug store. You could pick up a prescription, cash a check, and sit down at the soda fountain and order yourself a burger and milkshake — all under one roof. The drugstore was opened in 1951 by Hilton Nau and later purchased by one of his employees, Lambert Labay, in 1972.

While Nau's was never quite the kids' paradise of some other ice cream shops on this list, it served up an old-school atmosphere alongside its soda fountain classics. According to locals, there was a palpable sense of community as regulars came in for lunch and conversed for hours over a menu that went largely unchanged throughout the decades. The store was so well-known that it drew celebrity guests throughout the years, including Dennis Hopper, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and former Texas governor Ann Richards.

Labay's daughter, Laura, took over Nau's Enfield Drug in 2016. The diner and soda fountain closed down in 2019, and despite a brief attempt at reopening in 2020, never quite got off the ground. In 2023, Nau's was unable to renew its lease, and the iconic drugstore closed for good.

Bresler's 33 Flavors began as an ice cream cart, but grew into a national ice cream parlor franchise known for its rotating menu of inventive flavors. In 1929, William Bresler and his six sons began making and selling ice cream bars in Chicago. For a time, the company only sold wholesale ice cream. It wasn't until 1962 that the company officially named itself Bresler's 33 Flavors and opened its first ice cream franchise.

Though each store only served 33 flavors of ice cream at a time, Bresler's ice cream facilities produced over 250 unique flavors. A vintage menu from a Chicago Bresler's 33 shows flavors like licorice, maple, and cherry cola sherbet alongside classics like pistachio and mint chocolate chip. There was always something new to try when you visited Bresler's 33, like banana berry and strawberry marshmallow.

By the 1980s, there were over 300 Bresler's franchises in the United States. Stanley Bresler, the grandson of the company's founder, sold the chain to Oberweis Dairy in 1987. Bresler's 33 Flavors was sold a couple more times over the next few years, ending up as a subsidiary of international frozen dessert giant CoolBrands. Bresler's stores gradually closed or became franchises of other brands.

If you wanted the freshest ice cream possible, Peaceful Meadows Farm was once the place to go in Massachusetts. Initially a dairy farm in 1920, Peaceful Meadows opened an ice cream shop on-site in 1962, making its ice cream with cream from the cows milked right there on the farm. The ice cream operation eventually grew to open two additional locations and produce more than 20 flavors of ice cream.

For most of Peaceful Meadows's tenure, customers could get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the dairy farm at work at the main location in Whitman. The barn was open for visitors to see how cows were milked, and occasionally, you could even pet newborn calves. Other locations didn't have baby cows, but the Peaceful Farms ice cream menu was still worth the visit. Menus from 2009 list 21 options, ranging from popular ice cream flavors like strawberry and coffee to more unusual ones like coconut chocolate almond, butter crunch, and grapenut.

Running a dairy farm and an ice cream shop is a tall order, and in 2022, Peaceful Meadows had to close one of its locations. In 2023, the entire dairy farm and ice cream plant went up for auction, closing Peaceful Meadows Farms permanently. The property was purchased by another dairy farmer and ice cream lover, who is working to restore Peaceful Meadows to what it once was.

Have you ever wondered who first thought to crush up a candy bar and mix it in with ice cream? Wonder no more, because the answer is Steve Herrell, founder of Steve's Ice Cream. He opened his first ice cream shop in Somerville, Massachusetts, in 1973 and quickly had lines stretching down the block. Herrell developed a high-fat, low-overrun ice cream that was super creamy, and you could customize it with mix-ins like Heath bars and Oreos. 

Herrell thought his fancy ice cream was just a fad, so he sold the shop just four years later. But Herrell's super premium ice cream was here to stay, and the next few years saw the founding of gourmet ice creams you can still buy today, like Ben & Jerry's and Häagen-Dazs. Ben & Jerry's in particular is said to be directly inspired by Steve's Ice Cream, with its hippie vibes and player piano in the shop.

The new owner of Steve's, Boston ice cream maker Joey Crugnale, opened 26 more Steve's Ice Cream shops before selling it again in 1983 to a corporate owner. Its new owners expanded and then shuttered locations until the last one closed in 2006. Herrell got back into the ice cream game in 1981, when he opened Herrell's Ice Cream with a similar mix-in concept. You can still find his shops in Massachusetts, but we wish we could have visited the original Steve's in its heyday.

Draeger's Candy & Ice Cream was a classic parlor in the Shaker Heights area of Cleveland, serving milkshakes, sodas, and ice cream sundaes alongside homemade candies and chocolates. Marvin and Bette Draeger opened the store in 1953, then passed it to their son, Fred, a few years later, who ran the store with his wife, Gerry, until it closed in 2006.

Customers loved Draeger's for its vintage atmosphere and nostalgic treats like phosphate sodas, but the homemade fudge sauce is what truly made the ice cream parlor's name. Fudge sauce was served to tables in a tiny pitcher set upon a paper lace doily, giving a little extra class to your ice cream outing. The fudge sauce was so good that an article in the Cleveland Scene called it "the gold standard against which we will always judge all others."

A few years after the original parlor closed, the Draegers' niece begged them to share their recipes and techniques so the fudge sauce could live on. Fred and Gerry shared their secrets and the original copper kettle they used to make the fudge, and for a few more years, Draeger's hot fudge was available until the business closed in 2021.

Bischoff's was a North Jersey staple for nearly 90 years, but the retro ice cream shop got its start across the river in Manhattan. Originally, Alfred Bischoff sold strawberry, chocolate, peach, and vanilla ice cream in the New York Hippodrome. His son eventually moved the store to Teaneck, NJ, where three more generations would steer it before it closed for good in 2023.

With more space available in New Jersey, Bischoff's could expand and modernize. It did away with the wooden tub ice cream maker of old but stuck to fresh ingredients and traditional recipes, eventually making over 40 unique ice cream flavors. The menu boasted plenty of classics, as well as more unique flavors like pineapple, cherry pistachio, and apple strudel.

Steve Mather, the last owner of Bischoff's, tried for years to keep the store open, even when it didn't make financial sense. He announced it would close permanently at the end of 2022, but the shop returned as a summer pop-up in 2023, with plans to transform into a full-service restaurant and community center. Though Bischoff's received plenty of community support, it wasn't enough to sustain it long-term, and the pop-up was the last hurrah for this beloved ice cream shop.

Have you ever wished you could quit your job and open an ice cream store? That's exactly what Art Cardoza and Chuck Burns, the founders of Burnardo'z, did. (Burnardo'z is a mash-up of their last names.) The unhappy schoolteachers left their jobs in 1976 to open the ice cream parlor, convincing a famous San Francisco ice cream maker to teach them the art of this frozen dessert. At Burnardo'z, it wasn't just the delicious ice cream that drew lines down the block, but the enormous scoops topping cones and sundaes.

The shop opened some franchises throughout the '80s, but in 2003, one of the original owners, Chuck Burns, teamed up with a new partner, Greg Steinberger. They too combined their names and rebranded Burnardo'z as Doc Burnstein's Ice Cream Lab, serving wild flavors like Merlot Raspberry Truffle and Caramel X-plosion. Doc Burnstein's locations began to close suddenly in 2023, and local reporting revealed that financial and corporate missteps had caused the sudden demise of the ice cream shop.

Gill's Old-Fashioned Ice Cream opened in the Original Farmer's Market in Los Angeles in 1937, headed by Joe Gill. When Joe died in 1948, his son Bob took over running the stand. Bob Gill served more unique ice cream flavors than almost anyone else at the time, and his creations were often a treat for the eyes as much as for the taste buds. Gill's ice cream was so delightful that Walt Disney himself is said to have asked Gill to make ice cream for Disneyland — an offer Gill turned down.

Gill is credited with creating both Rocky Road and rum raisin, two flavors that have made their way into the permanent ice cream canon. But Bob always said that Gill's was most famous for its ice cream fruit basket. This 30-serving treat pressed a variety of fruit-flavored ice creams into specialized molds to create the appearance of an actual fruit basket. While it gradually became less popular, Gill would still make the fruit basket for special occasions right up until the store closed.

Jody Gill, Bob's daughter, began helping with the ice cream shop in 2007. Despite everyone's efforts, the Gill's weren't able to make enough improvements to the shop to meet the standards of the Farmer's Market. Gill's Old-Fashioned Ice Cream had to close in 2017, after 80 years of scooping in Los Angeles.

Murray's Ice Cream was opened in 1984 by mom Penny and daughter Murray Nixon in Kansas City, Missouri. Murray Nixon was the driving force of the ice cream operation, continuously making three-gallon batches of her invented flavors. Though the shop would only offer 16 types of ice cream at a time, Nixon had a 250-plus flavor repertoire that included green tea ice cream, mojito sorbet, and a Frangelico flavor known as One Drunk Monk.

The Nixons served ice cream at Murray's for 32 years, building a loyal fan base over their time open. They'd personally reach out to customers when their favorite flavor was back on the menu, and fans would patiently wait for Murray's annual winter break to end so they could get the treats once again. In December 2016, however, Murray's closed up and quietly put its equipment up for sale online, confirming suspicions that the shop would never reopen.

Although Howard Johnson might make you think of motels and family restaurants, the hospitality powerhouse got its start as a humble ice cream kiosk. After working at a drugstore with a soda fountain, Howard Johnson began making his own hand-cranked ice cream. By the late 1920s, he had about 20 ice cream kiosks throughout Massachusetts.

Howard Johnson's ice cream became famous first for its high butterfat content, which was nearly double the standard of the day, as well as for the menu of 28 distinct flavors. From black raspberry to pistachio and caramel fudge to macaroon, there was a flavor for everyone. The ice cream kiosks soon began offering other snacks, like hot dogs, chicken pot pies, and the chain's famous fried clams. 

As Howard Johnson went through periods of rapid expansion, becoming a nationwide family road trip stop, ice cream became less of a focal point. The more than 1,000 Howard Johnson locations open in the '70s began to shutter in the following decades. By 2000, there were just eight places to get Howard Johnson ice cream, and the last restaurant, in Lake George, NY, closed in 2021.