The much-loved Green Tree ice cream shop Antney’s Ice Cream has announced that it will open for their 2024 season on Monday, April 1.
Known for their massive selection of ice cream – at last count, the shop had more than 700 flavors in rotation (with 16 flavors available on any given day), Antney’s opening day has been a celebration since the shop first opened in 2011.
“We wanted to open on April Fool’s Day, but we’re not really planning to fool anyone – we’ll actually be open for the year,” says owner Vicky Lane, who took over the shop when previous owners Anthony and Lee Anne Ciotti retired in 2022.
Lane says that while the shop will have a few new crew members behind the counter this season, there will also be a lot of familiar faces from last year. And, of course, they’ll continue to create new flavors all season long.
“I’m actually working on a Butter Beer right now, which will be a new one this year,” says Lane. “We already have quite a few ideas in the works, but we still love getting ideas from customers and employees. We had a few really new flavors last year that came from our customers.”
That includes one of their most popular releases last year, lemon cake ice cream made with lemon curd and blueberry swirl. “We tried that one time, then did a small tweak to make it perfect, and it was very sought after for the rest of the season.”
In addition to homemade ice cream, Antney’s also offers soft serve, frozen yogurt, sorbet, pup cups, and sugar-free and dairy-free varieties.
We took a deep dive into Antney’s back in 2021, when then-owner Anthony Ciotti told us that unlike many ice cream shops that use a standard vanilla ice cream base to create different flavors, every ice cream option at Antney’s has its own specific base and unique recipe.
Lane, who has worked at Antney’s since it first opened, says that since she officially took over two years ago, not much has changed in their process.
“This will be my third season as the owner, but the first year, Anthony was right along side me, making sure the transition was smooth,” she says. “I still talk to him regularly, if not daily. And it’s been so important for me to make sure that the consistency has stayed, and that the ice cream is as good as it always was.”
Lane says that with more than 700 flavors to choose from, it’s always tricky to figure out exactly what lineup she’ll start the season with.
“We’re always going to have vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry,” she says. “That’s always three of our 16. The rest of the flavors, I try to the best of my abilities to keep a diverse menu. So, some kind of coffee flavor, a mint, a birthday cake, a pecan – definitely a peanut butter flavor, we have a lot of peanut butter lovers out there.”
And, if you happen to have a favorite flavor that you don’t see on the menu? Lane says that they take requests all the time, and usually, can put it on the menu within a week.
“We love getting requests, and hearing what favorites people have,” she says. “And we love it when people come up with their own flavor ideas, too.”
Antney’s Ice Cream will be open seven days a week (except major holidays), from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. Follow them on social media for menu updates and more.
Antney’s Ice Cream (1316 Poplar Street)
Leave a Reply