For the crème de la crème, I nominate the black raspberry chip, the closest thing to a transcendent experience ice cream can provide. What makes it so good? It could be the sensation of the rich, frozen cream giving way to the warmth of chocolate melting on your tongue. Or perhaps the dark chocolate chips, hidden like little icebergs in the magenta-colored ice cream. Then there’s the intense flavor of black raspberries, tasting like they were distilled from their natural state to something better. But I’m betting that it’s not any one thing, but a delicate balance: the slight bitterness of the chocolate complementing the fresh sweetness of the berry, which has just enough tartness to keep things interesting.
David Rosengarten, award-winning food writer and former restaurant critic for Gourmet magazine, declared Graeter’s the best ice cream in his wildly popular newsletter. He originally had given the honor to a small restaurant in New York in 2002, leaving Graeter’s out. He was overwhelmed with letters asking how he could not pick Graeter’s. Here’s what he wrote in a follow-up piece in 2005:
Simple: I’d never tasted it, even though it was founded in 1870. But I’m sure glad those folks wrote to me, because now I’ve tasted it—and I’ll never leave it out again! This is heartland ice cream at its best, enriched with eggs—absolutely winning waves of dairy, which is the best feature of Graeter’s Ice Cream.
Take the vanilla. Forget the Tahitian stuff; this ice cream tastes like the best vanilla milk shake you ever had at the soda shoppe, or like the last licks of concentrated milk in the bottom of a particularly great bowl of cereal. The lightish-beige chocolate, which is not chocolate freaks’ chocolate, but a killer blend of fudgescicle taste and big ice cream impact, is superb. There’s a little candy bar and Dixie cup chocolate in there as well.
The reddish-pink strawberry, with its little flecks of seeds and fruit, is a platonic blend of huge cream and good fruit, which trickles down your throat like nostalgia.
But the two best ice creams I tasted from Graeter’s were the other flavors they sent. Is this the best black cherry ice cream ever? I think so—with the almost winy, alcoholic richness of the enormous cherry chunks meeting the usual creamy orgasm. Lots of people put “stuff” in ice cream, but I could see immediately that Graeter’s basic formula makes it ideal for mixing with “stuff.” That was sure the case in the knock-out toffee chip, which bombards you with creamy, buttery, nutty, caramelly chocolate sensations, wrapped of course, in that Ohio cream thing.
In June 2006, Christopher Buckley of forbes.com, a self-declared ice cream snob, wrote about growing up on Good Humor and Carvel soft serve and how, in adulthood, he branched out to find the best of the sweet treat he could. He thought he had discovered the pinnacle at the University Pastry Shop in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington, D.C., where he lived (he was also a fan of the much ballyhooed Berthillon and Dallyou in Paris). After tasting Graeter’s Ice Cream, however, he realized that the best ice cream was in an unlikely location.
A few years ago, a dear friend from Ohio confided—rather insisted—that the best ice cream in the world is made in Cincinnati, by a firm called Graeter’s. Ice cream snob that I am, I treated this revelation with skepticism and hauteur. Cincinnati? Well, all right, if you say so…
She turned out to be right. Never have I more gladly eaten my words than when I fell—freefalling—into that first pint of Graeter’s black raspberry chip. Why, I demanded, had no one told me of this before? To have wasted a half-century! I dug deeper, into their peach, strawberry, coffee, caramel, double chocolate chip, mint chocolate chip, eggnog. How ironic, how delicious, how patriotic, to have traveled the world in search of happiness only to find it—in Cincinnati.
Money magazine did a fun piece in 2006 where it had four pregnant women taste five ice creams that could be mail-ordered from anywhere in the country. Graeter’s black raspberry chocolate chip came in second only to Il Aboratorio Del Gelato from New York and beat Columbus’s Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams salty caramel flavor. The tasters said it was sweet and complex, nice and smooth, “the way ice cream from childhood tasted.”
In December 2005, Vanity Fair magazine recommended Graeter’s as one of its “hot gifts,” saying that Graeter’s was “one of the best homemade-ice-cream companies in the country.”
The company was written about not once but twice by Saveur magazine, first when the magazine wrote:
Ice cream artisans have a long history in this country (New York shopkeeper Philip Lindsay first marketed his flavors in 1777), and today, great ice cream is easy to find—locally…Graeter’s quest for good fruit symbolizes [Dick Graeter’s] dedication: His fussy search for prime peaches starts in the Carolinas in midsummer and moves north with the season, paying off with fresh peach ice cream. Earlier in the summer, he scours Oregon and Washington for black raspberries to go in his best selling flavor, black raspberry chip. But his biggest triumph is the chocolate chips.
The magazine again wrote about it in a roundup of ice cream parlors across the country. Graeter’s was named along with Amy’s Ice Creams in Austin, Texas, Dr. Bob’s Handcrafted Ice Creams in Upland, California, and Ted Drewes Frozen Custard in St. Louis.
When Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, was asked by USA Today for his favorite ice cream parlors in July 2002, he listed Graeter’s as one of the best.
Gourmet magazine was also a fan of Graeter’s, describing it as “the perfect pint.” And finally, Chicago magazine said Graeter’s was a must for those taking a road trip to the Queen City:
From an endless array of choices, we picked a bowl of mocha chocolate chip with marshmallows and hot chocolate sauce, that was smooth, rich, and insanely creamy. It was about here that my wife, a lifelong Chicagoan asked how much I thought a house in Cincinnati cost.
The Graeter family also says it has received orders from a number of celebrities, including Sarah Jessica Parker, George Clooney (his aunt, Rosemary Clooney, was a long-standing family friend of the Graeters; she also became the celebrity spokesperson for Graeter’s when the Aronoff Center store opened downtown in 1996), Nick Lachey, Kevin Costner, Ashley Judd and Justin Timberlake.
In addition, Graeter’s is the official ice cream of the Cincinnati Bengals.
TIMELINE
1868–1872
Louis Charles Graeter leaves home in Indiana for the big city and begins selling ice cream at a street market, eventually establishing a storefront on Sycamore Street.
1873–1883
Louis and his brother Fred move to various storefronts, adding candy to the business and eventually following the incline up to Walnut Hills. In August 1883, Louis leaves to open an ice cream company in California.
1900–1918
Louis returns to Cincinnati, marries Regina Berger and resumes operating Graeter’s Ice Cream in Walnut Hills (which his brother continued during his absence). The couple settles at 967 East McMillan Street.
1919
Louis dies in a tragic accident. Regina continues the business with her two young sons.
The Roaring Twenties
Regina begins opening satellite stores, beginning with Walnut Street downtown and the Higginson’s Tea Room in Hyde Park. Six new stores are opened by 1929.
World War II
Underperforming stores are closed or relocated, and Graeter’s enjoys a period of high profitability as war-weary customers enjoy sweet treats at Graeter’s during a time of rationing.
Postwar Years
Ice cream industry begins to change with the introduction of soft serve and home freezers that make packaged ice cream feasible at home all year round.
1955
Regina Graeter, “the Boss,” dies; business is carried on by her sons, Wilmer and Paul. The industry changes from mom and pop shops to an era of big commercial dairies and mass production.
1957
Bakery product line is introduced in response to competitive challenges of new soft serve and the trend to eat ice cream at home.
1958–1
980s
Wilmer, with sons Louis, Dick and Jon, buys out Uncle Paul and rebuilds a business that had deteriorated due to lack of investment over the previous decade.
1981
Graeter’s opens prototype single-store ice cream factory on Colerain Avenue based on new Carpigiani batch freezer.
1984
Graeter’s first franchise operation opens in northern Kentucky. Single-store factory concept is abandoned, but the Carpigiani machines prove successful.
1987
Graeter’s begins selling ice cream through Kroger.
1989
Fourth-generation Chip, Bob and Richard join the business.
1995
Plant expansion is completed, nearly doubling the space to twenty-five thousand square feet at a cost of almost $2 million.
2004
Transition of ownership to the fourth generation is completed. Major brand projects completed, resulting in a professional brand mark, packaging and environmental designs.
2005–2007
Work begins to add three new retail stores, taking Graeter’s outside Hamilton County and beyond the I-275 loop for the first time.
2007
Plant capacity increased over 40 percent from 2004, allowing for Ohio wholesale expansion. New strategic alliances formed with Trauth and Smith to expand distribution.
2008
Graeter’s introduced to Denver in the first test market without retail, sparking interest from new partners and other markets. Plans begin for new manufacturing plant.
2009
Graeter’s breaks ground for its new plant in Bond Hill, to be completed 2010.
2010
Graeter’s moves production to new Bond Hill plant and buys out largest franchisee, bringing the total number of company-owned retail stores to twenty-nine.
STORE LOCATIONS
CINCINNATI
Corporate Office/Mount Auburn
2145 Reading Road
Cincinnati, OH 43202
513-721-3323
Cherry Grove
8533 Beechmont Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45255
513-474-5636
Clifton
332 Ludlow Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45220
513-281-4749
Deerfield
5076 Natorp Boulevard
Mason, OH 45040
513-339-0140
Finneytown
899 West Galbraith
Cincinnati, OH 45232
513-522-8157
Foutain Square
511 Walnut Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202
513-381-4191
Hyde Park Square
2704 Erie Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45208
513-321-6221
Kenwood
7369 Kenwood Road
Cincinnati, OH 45236
513-793-5665
Mariemont Square
6918 Wooster Pike
Cincinnati, OH 45227
513-272-0859
Northgate
9356 Colerain Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45251
513-385-5045
Springdale
11511 Princeton Road
Cincinnati, OH 45246
513-771-7157
Western Hills
2376 Ferguson Road
Cincinnati, OH
45238 513-755-2236
Western Hills
3301 Westbourne Drive
Cincinnati, OH 45248
513-922-8700
COLUMBUS
Corporate Office/Bethel Road
2555 Bethel Road
Columbus, OH 43220
614-442-7622
Bexley
2282 East Main Street
Bexley, OH 43209
614-236-2263
Dublin
6255 Frantz Road
Dublin, OH 43017
614-799-2663
Easton
147 Easton Town Center
Columbus, OH 43219
614-476-2094
Gahanna
425 Beecher Road
Gahanna, OH 43230
614-855-5508
Grove City
4009 Broadway
Grove City, OH 43123
614-277-9011
Pickerington
1500 Cross Creeks Boulevard
Pickerington, OH 43147
614-755-0865
Powell
3762 West Powell Road
Powell, OH 43065
614-336-3661
Upper Arlington
1534 West Lane Avenue
Columbus, OH 43221
614-488-3222
Westerville
1 North State Street
Westerville, OH 43081
614-895-0553
Worthington
654 High Street
Worthington, OH 43085
614-848-5151
DAYTON
Beavercreek
2330-A North Fairfield Road
Beavercreek, OH 45431
937-427-4700
Centerville
2 North Main Street
Centerville, OH 45459
937-312-9001
Oakwood
2412 Far Hills Avenue
Dayton, OH 45419
937-534-0602
Springboro
752 Gardner Road
Springboro, OH 45066
937-748-0300
LEXINGTON
Brighton Place Shoppes
3090 Helmsdale Place
Lexington, KY 40509
859-543-0446
Lexington
325 Romany Road
Lexington, KY 40502
859-543-0446
Palomar
3735 Harrodsburg Road
Lexington, KY 40513
859-296-9636
Tates Creek
4101 Tates Creek Road
Lexington, KY 40517
859-245-4037
LOUISVILLE
Fern Creek
6509 Bardstown Road
Louisville, KY 40291
502-231-2083
Highlands Douglass Loop
2204 Bardstown Road
Louisville, KY 40205
502-451-0044
The Horseshoe Casino Hotel Southern Indiana
11999 Casino Center Drive
Elizabeth, IN 47117
812-969-9100
Landis Lakes
13817 English Villa Drive
Louisville, KY 40245
502-254-1760
New Albany
4310 Charlestown Road
New Albany, IN 47150
812-949-6263
Springhurst
9430 Brownsboro Road
Louisville, KY 40241
502-327-0651
NORTHERN KENTUCKY
Florence
8860 U.S. Highway 42
Florence, KY 41042
859-384-9130
Fort Mitchell
301 Buttermilk Pike
Fort Mitchell, KY 41017
859-781-7770
Newport
1409 North Grand Avenue
Newport, KY 41071
859-781-7770
Newport on the Levee
342 Monmouth Street
Newport, KY 41071
859-261-3160
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Agnew, Ronnie. “Yogurt Challenges Premium Ice Cream.” Cincinnati Enquirer, October 3, 1988.
Blank Fasig, Lisa. “No Sugar Coating.” Business Courier, February 6, 2004.
Buckley, Christopher. “Ice Cream: A Memoir.” www.forbes.com. June 19, 2006.
Castrodale, Beth. “Graeter’s Dips into Ky. Market.” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 29, 1987.
Chatzky, Jean. “Get the Scoop.” Money, August 2006.
Cho, Janet. “Pierre’s Ice Cream Co. Gets Unanimous Approval for $6 Million Expansion from Cleveland Planning Commission.” Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 4, 200
9.
Cincinnati. “Hometown Foods That Define Our City.” June 2004.
Cincinnati Enquirer. “Illness Is Fatal to Mrs. Graeter, Confectioner, 80.” December 27, 1955.
Cincinnati Enquirer. “My Lover’s a Rover.” March 18, 1887.
“Cincinnati–Northern Kentucky Metropolitan Area.” www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Cincinnati/Northern-Kentucky-metropolitan-area#history.
“Farming in the 40s: Changes in Eating Habits.” www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe40s/life_24.html.
Food Timeline FAQs: Ice Cream & Ice, the Food Timeline. www.foodtimeline.org/foodicecream.html.
Friedman, Brian. “Ice Cream Worth Any Price?” Cincinnati Enquirer, September 10, 1983.
“Frozen Yogurt.” www.madehow.com/Volume-2/Frozen-Yogurt.html.
Gallagher, Patricia. “Gently, Graeter’s Expands.” Cincinnati Enquirer, March 13, 1989.
———. “Graeter’s Sweet on Kroger: Grocery Stores Offer 24-Hour, Year-Round Market.” Cincinnati Enquirer, March 8, 1990.
Giglierano, Geoffey J., and Deborah A. Overmyer, with Frederic L. Propas. The Bicentennial Guide to Greater Cincinnati: A Portrait of Two Hundred Years. Cincinnati, OH: Cincinnati Historical Society, 1988.
Goss, Charles Frederick. Cincinnati, The Queen City, Volume III. Cincinnati, OH: 1912.
Gourmet. “It’s in the Mail.” N.d.
“Ice Cream and Frozen Desserts in the U.S.: Markets and Opportunities in Retail and Foodservice.” 6th edition. Packaged Facts January 2010.
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