INSIDE SCOOP

418 E Ridgeway St, Clifton Forge, VA

540-620-6445 • Find them on Facebook • Thurs-Sat: Noon to 9pm

Deciding to open an ice cream shop can be more difficult than you might think. Of course there is location, ease of access, hopefully quaint surroundings, and the most important, the option of homemade or hand-dipped.

My time spent at Penn State’s Ice Cream Short Course taught me more about the running of a business than hands-on ice cream production, so I found out what kind of investments are needed if the homemade decision is chosen – quite a lot. Machinery, ice cream base and ingredients and more. Then you have to be very confident that your ice cream will be so very good as to draw the customer base needed to make it all work.

If you go with supplying your shop with tried and tested ice cream, you have cut one of the variables from the equation for success. And there are some excellent ice creams out there. Of course, Hershey’s has numerous flavors and has been around for quite some time. But for those shops that want to dabble in the small-batch purveyors, there is still a great selection from which to choose.

About a year ago, Keith and Celeste Bagley took the plunge and opened C&Oh Ice Cream Depot in Clifton Forge, VA. Clifton Forge sits in the Alleghany Highlands of Virginia and, while it may be a small community, it has a mighty past as being the center to service and ready the locomotives for the C&O railroad heading west over the Alleghany mountains and east over the Blue Ridge. Today you can visit the C&O Railway Heritage Center which preserves this history and tells the story of the C&O Railway. It is, obviously, from this marvel that the Bagleys forged the C&Oh Ice Cream Depot.

They did their research and decided to hand-dip ice cream from two separate sources; Ashby’s Sterling and Leiby’s. While their longevity may not be as long as the railroad, they both have a foothold in the ice cream world. Ashby’s Sterling was established in Michigan in 1984 by the Davis Brothers Tom, Rick, Gary and Jim who saw a need to fill the gap between supermarket and expensive premium ice cream options. They tested and tasted and settled on a formula of 14% butterfat and 85% overrun (the air that gives ice cream its volume). Over the next 40 years, they developed over 70 unique flavors, of which many are scooped at C&Oh Ice Cream Depot.

Leiby’s has a bit more history to their ice cream story, created back in 1928 in Tamaqua, PA. Utilizing local dairy farms, they churn up over 60 flavors of some of the best ice cream available, still using the base recipe from 97 years ago. Besides their delicious ice cream, their website blog is entitled ‘The Inside Scoop’ – very nice.

C&Oh Ice Cream Depot not only has some great ice cream, the shop is full of nostalgia from the Bagley’s childhood. You’ll find a three working model train sets. Further back are three 1960s vintage soda vending machines which dispense 21 flavors of sodas in glass bottles. You can add a soundtrack to your visit with their working jukebox. And further adorning the shop are lots of antiques and fun things, including a PacMan machine.

Back to the ice cream; C&Oh’s have about 20 flavors at a time in their scooping case, with such offerings as Banana Pudding, Marion Blackberry, Eskimo Kisses (coconut ice cream kissed with chocolate truffles and warmed by a thick blanket of fudge), Michigan Pothole (thick, black-tar fudge in chocolate ice cream with chunks of asphalt) and Bake Shoppe (cookie dough ice cream with chocolate chip cookie dough, fresh baked brownie bites, swirled with fudge). In addition, they feature seasonal flavors like Pumpkin Pie Supreme, Apple Crisp, Campfire S’mores and Monkey Bones (banana ice cream with chocolate chips, graham cracker crunch and peanut butter swirl). All these flavors and more can be savored in a cup, cone – cake or waffle – floats, shake, sundae or banana split.

In addition, C&Oh Ice Cream Depot serves up Waffle Nacho Flights with 3 ice cream flavors, whipped cream, syrup, sprinkles and waffle chips, Smoothie Bowls – either acai or mango with a variety of toppings, and Poffertjies – mini Dutch pancakes in a variety of flavors which come with shipped cream, powdered sugar and a scoop of ice cream.

The Alleghany Highlands is a wonderful area to spend a day or two, as you’ve read in this issue. When traveling in or through, make sure to pop in to C&Oh Ice Cream Depot for a classic soda, some ice cream, a game of PacMac and some nostalgia.