This may not mean much to most of you, but it meant a lot to my family. When we arrived here in PA in 1991, Cathy and I missed only two things about Connecticut, besides our friends: the Old Corner Cafe, a fantastic little bar in Naugatuck; and the Big Dipper ice cream parlor. I've never forgotten the Old Corner, but I have to admit, once we found Goodnoe's Dairy Bar in Newtown...it made losing the Big Dipper a lot easier to bear. Delicious ice cream, real fountain service, and great half-gallon containers (really: they raised the price rather than cut the size) that we re-used for years as frozen food containers.
We were just bereft when Goodnoe's decided to close after 50 years. Arrgh! Where would we find such great ice cream? What would we do for family parties with no ice cream cakes? What was I going to freeze chili in?
Well...the next generation of the Goodnoe family, and his dad, have re-opened in Newtown as of Friday, in a much smaller shop, but supposedly with the old recipes. Nora and I saw the sign and stopped in yesterday. We got a container of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, brought it home gleefully, and put it in the freezer. I called Cathy, we told Thomas; we were all excited. And last night we had some. Oh, yum. The dough needs some work, and there needs to be a bit more of it -- not lots, but more -- but the ice cream itself is excellent. This made my summer.
Nora just called down the stairs. "It's really weird to see a Goodnoe's container in the freezer and know it doesn't have soup in it!" Yeah, I told her, but I think I can get used to it.
19 comments:
Sounds like a winner! Another great PA ice cream that remains in a full half-gallon is Hershey's from Harrisburg, an excellent choice in many creative flavors (including black walnut).
Locally here, we have the infamous Penn State creamery and the even more-local Meyer Dairy,which is a half-gallon purveyor, too.
This is the kind of thing that makes life worth living, especially in the summer!
Forget to mention, Sam: Goodnoe the Younger is a graduate of the Penn State ice cream school!
Good to hear, Lew. My wife and I lived in the Newtown area for a few years (we were married at Lavendar Hall). Is the new Goodnoe's in the same shopping center? I owe Isaac Newton's a visit anyway ...
No, it's down by where Stockburger's...was. Another place that went down the tubes.
But do they have Teaberry ice cream!? My all time favorite! The Jersey Shore Creamery used to have the best Teaberry ice cream! I tried making some at home and it was good, but just not the same.
They don't, but the Amish family that makes ice cream at the Newtown market DOES. It's very nice, and I'm the only one in the family that likes it.
Meyer Dairy makes teaberry, too, and ditto with Lew, no one likes it but me!
sorry you had to live in connecticut
Connecticut wasn't that bad, it was just when we were living there, in Waterbury, things weren't so great. Both our cars had the stereos stolen out of them and were vandalized, our apartment was broken into twice, and once the town cops had me out of my car, spread-eagled on the hood, for no apparent reason. Not a great time. So...the only things we missed were the ice cream and the bar.
anyone want to hazard a guess how many liters of ice cream the average american puts back in a year?
Lew, you ever go to Tanner Brothers? They got some pretty good ice cream too.
Go there often, Bill. Their ice cream's good, though it was only okay when we first moved here in 1991. Definitely got better, and they've always been generous when dipping cones. We go for the produce: great quality, low prices. Calandra breads, too.
Oh wow, a CT connection! Lew, i'm a regular reader from CT, and i lived in waterbury for a few years until the kids were school age- no way. Sadly Waterbury has not changed at all..in fact the only thing that my family misses is the proliferation of good pizza places, a few that might rival New Haven... we've family in PA so i'll definitely be hunting for this ice cream, thanks for the info.
Oh, hey, glad you brought that up, I'd forgotten the pizza. There was good pizza. Sorry to hear it hadn't changed. I was cruising the Web one night and came across the scandal with the mayor; was really glad we'd moved.
Cheers!
Waterbury... I understand the giant illuminated cross has been dismantled? When I was a kid, it frightened me due to a kid's messed-up understanding of theology. I didn't realize there was a whole "Holy Land" park up there, which i guess has long been abandoned and is now in ruins from nature and vandals.
Yeah, the cross is gone. Always something to point out to visitors when we lived there, but we never did go up...
Lew,
I stopped by Goodnoe's today. My kids were thrilled that it was back. Well, what a disappointment! They have a very small range of flavors(nothing like the original). The ice cream was terrible. The kid behind the counter was so slow and (my personal peeve)handled both the money and the ice cream with his bare hands (yuck). Despite the line forming out the door, Kendall Goodnoe couldn't be bothered to wait on customers. We will not be back. It is a pale imitation of the original.
It is a smaller range of flavors, and it's a smaller place, and yes, service was slow. But I'm willing to let it get up to speed. Try it again in a month...or don't, your choice, of course. But I'll be back.
And now my son's working at Goodnoe's! So we'll definitely be in more often. Stop by and see him this summer...
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