Photos by Amy Dragoo
“It’s a hot, sticky day, and I am an ice cream man, so I am doing great!” said John Reece when we met at his new Scooped Ice Cream location in downtown West Chester.
Entering the place is sort of like walking right off an Italian street and into a galetaria. Although the location is said to have once been a speakeasy, the focus now is on ice cream and gelato.
Reece is passionate about making these things, and he knows exactly why they have become immediately popular here in West Chester. “It’s because you have a choice,” he said. “It starts with choosing to buy the best quality organic dairy, and then you can choose to buy the cheap chocolate or the $170 box from Italy. The difference is in the ingredients.”
This is apparent after a quick tasting. Scooped Ice Cream offers the standard chocolate, vanilla and mint chocolate chip (made with organic ingredients so they far surpass store-bought flavors). But then there are some interesting flavors you might not find in another ice cream parlor, such as Coffee with Bailey’s Irish Cream, Caramel Stout made with beer straight from Iron Hill, and my favorite, Mojito.
Sensing a pattern? Alcohol or not, someone is on the right track. Reece says the flavor ideas come from customers, and playing around with ingredients has become a hobby of his. His fellow ice cream makers are his son, Tyler, and chef Joe Montogmery.
Before being an ice cream man, Reece worked in retail as upper management. After getting laid off, he and his wife decided to set out and do something on their own.
He said they chose ice cream because their son had worked in an ice cream parlor in Virginia. After an East Coast tour to seek out the best of the best in ice cream and gelato, the couple learned some important things about making ice cream. First, it has to be homemade. Second, it has to be made with the right equipment — from Italy, no less.
“If you ever see Bobby Flay making ice cream on the Food Network, that’s the equipment we use,” he said. But there is something else that plays a large part in the ice cream making process: Air.
Reece learned that cheap ice cream incorporates a lot of air to stretch the ingredients, and the flavor suffers. But a gourmet ice cream is thicker and more flavorful. “That’s why we use the same ice cream making technique that you would use with a gourmet gelato,” Reece said. “If it’s done right, there isn’t a lot of air in it.”
Scooped gets their ingredients from a farm in Lancaster County, which is one of the few in the United States to be certified free-range and organic. The owner of the farm told Reece that the biggest difference between American ice cream and Italian ice cream is the dairy. The farm also provides all of the fruits and chocolates that Reece uses.
When asked what he likes most about being the ice cream man, he said, “the sense of community … I feel like a grandpop every day.” He also likes the good feeling he gets when someone chooses his product. This year, Scooped Ice Cream was named “Best Homemade Ice Cream” by the critics of Main Line Today. But Reece points out that he couldn’t do it without his wife, Liz, who is constantly challenging him to do better.
Scooped Ice Cream has a lot to offer, including music on Thursday evenings, free-trade organic coffee from One Village, and a smiling face to scoop your treat onto one of their homemade waffle cones. But, above all, Scooped offers some of the best ice cream around.
Hours: Sun-Thur: 12 noon to 10pm, Fri & Sat: 12 noon to 11pm
West Chester at 100 S. High Street
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