By Laura Rebecca Kenyon
Photos by Harriet Becker
CREAMERY CRAFTED QUALITY
The story behind the scoop

Close your eyes and imagine your ideal ice cream flavor.

Is it a bright and flavorful raspberry, dotted with toothsome bits of icy fruit?

Does it taste of strongly brewed iced coffee, mellowed with sugar and fresh cream?

Or do you crave a darkly decadent chocolate, lush with cocoa and studded with morsels of homemade brownies and dark chocolate chunks?

Chances are good that you can fulfill your ice cream dreams with these flavors or one of many, many others offered at Cayuga Lake Creamery.

Situated along Route 89 in Interlaken, and packed with eager customers, the Creamery scoops out a rotating selection of 30-plus house-made super premium ice creams and sorbets year round. The carnival of flavors are inspired by the season and the scenery: summer might feature S’mores, a vanilla ice cream with mini marshmallows, chocolate chunks, graham cracker pieces and fudge and marshmallow ribbons; winter brings the very popularWhite Russian, spiked with vodka and Kahlua and flecked white chocolate chunks; fall showcases a malty ice cream using Ithaca Beer Co.’s Nut Brown Ale; and in early spring, MapleWalnut takes advantage of local syrup harvested at the Cayuga Nature Center.

Owned by husband-and-wife team Jeff Kostick and Judy Gonroff, the four-year-old Creamery has quickly become a local institution, one born out of ingenuity and necessity. Kostick, with a background in technology, found himself without steady work following 9/11 and the dot-com bust; Gonroff ’s career alone was not enough to maintain their lifestyle.

“So we asked ourselves,” Kostick said, “What do we want to do with the rest of our lives?”

The Massachusetts couple had long owned a vacation cottage on Cayuga Lake. After years of lazy summer visits, they knew their beloved getaway spot had dearth of ice cream shops. “There was no place to get ice cream on Route 89,” Kostick said. “And we thought opening one would be a fun thing do to.”

Thus began a three-year odyssey of planning, researching, designing and building the Creamery from the ground up. Kostick and Gonroff visited many ice cream parlors throughout the region, tasting flavors and talking to established owners. One suggestion was instrumental in making the Creamery what it is today.

“One owner asked us, ‘You’re going to make your own ice cream, right?’“ Kostick said. “We said, ‘No ... why should we?We can buy our ice cream from any number of places.’ And she asked, ‘Why would I bypass the place just north or just south of you if you’re all serving the same ice cream?”

“A smart lady, she was!” said Gonroff. “Thank goodness!”

As a result, when the Creamery opened in April 2004 all its hard ice creams and sorbets were house-made with the finest ingredients available. The fruit they use is picked at the height of ripeness and individually frozen to preserve color and flavor, chocolate chunks come from the renown Guittard Chocolate Co. (unlike the “mocklate” used in many other ice creams), vanilla hails from Madagascar and numerous fruit and nut pastes are imported from Italy.

The ice cream making process begins with a super premium base from Upstate Farms featuring heavy cream, milk and sugar. A 14 percent butterfat content lends the final product a luxurious richness and creamy mouth feel. After pouring the base into the commercial ice cream machine (which resembles a home ice cream maker crossed with a washing machine), the flavor wizardry begins. Lighter flavors, like vanillas, are made first before progressing onto deeper, richer flavors, extracts and add-ins, like those using chocolate, coffee, nuts or fruits.

After the ice cream has churned for several minutes and is the consistency of soft serve, it’s poured into a large, plastic container and Kostick and Gonroff, or a few specially chosen employees, mix in extra fruits, candies, nuts and cookies to perfect the ice cream-togoodie ratio. After an overnight stay in the batch freezer to firm up, the ice cream is ready to fulfill cone, sundae and shake desires for kids of all ages.

In addition to making hard ice creams, the Creamery concocts a number of sorbets, including pear and watermelon. For more adult tastes, the Creamery offers sorbets made from local wines: Treleaven Merlot Raspberry Sorbet, Americana Vineyards Sweet Rosie Strawberry Sorbet and Swedish Hill Doobie Blues Orange Sorbet, to name a few.

The Creamery’s dedication to quality yielded a thriving business, drawing loyal customers from near and far. But for those who can’t make it to Interlaken, Jeff and Judy have hooked up with chefs at local restaurants to make their ice creams available on the dessert menu. The Creamery’s best flavors can be found at a number of restaurants, including Red Newt Bistro in Hector, Madderlake Café in Geneva and Simply Red Lakeside Bistro in Ovid; Kostick also frequently travels to events around the Finger Lakes with the Creamery’s portable ice cream cart.

For those who are really far away, the Creamery will ship six-packs of ice creams and sorbets anywhere in the United States.

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Laura Rebecca Kenyon in a professor, writer and editor living in Canandaigua. She writes a food blog called Laura Rebecca’s Kitchen.