Great Heights Creamery Opens This Weekend in the Rosemary District
Image: Hannah Phillips
Parkside, the new food and beverage compound in the Rosemary District, is welcoming its newest tenant this weekend. Great Heights Creamery will open on Saturday, April 20 at noon.
Owners Ryan and Christina Edwards have been tinkering with homemade ice cream for nearly 10 years. They started out in their home kitchen in New York.
Image: Hannah Phillips
"We were living in Brooklyn and a lot of mom-and-pop ice cream shops were popping up. Trying different and interesting flavor combinations inspired us to start churning at home," Ryan says.
When Covid-19 hit, Ryan was working as an ICU nurse and witnessed the impacts of the pandemic firsthand.
"I was struggling," he says. "It was really hard. On top of it, all of our family had migrated down to the Sarasota area. No one could come see us or help us with our 1-year-old daughter. So we sold our place, piled into the car with a dog and a 1-year-old, and drove down."
Image: Hannah Phillips
The Edwards family started selling the homemade ice cream they'd been making out of an ice cream cart at local farmers markets in Bradenton and Lakewood Ranch before a space came available at Parkside. Now, they're ready to open Great Heights Creamery with 13 dairy-based flavors and three vegan flavors.
The ice cream is made in-house, churned in the shop's back room, where the couple also makes waffle cones.
"We work with Dakin Dairy, so the ice cream base is local grass-fed dairy," Ryan says.
Image: Hannah Phillips
In addition to Dakin, he's partnered with other local businesses—like Sarasota Honey Company for an ice cream called Yes Honey, which is velvety smooth and, as you might expect, honey-forward. The acidic honey flavor hits behind my jaw. It's complex and wonderful. Another flavor, Somewhere in Tuscany, uses olive oil from Mazzone.
"It's not on the menu right now, but we also worked with Big Top Brewing for our Chocolate Stout Squared ice cream. We used their stout in the base and mixed it with chunks of stout cake for St. Patrick's Day," Ryan says.
What you won't find at Great Heights Creamery is loads of toppings. The only options are sprinkles (for the kiddos) and toasted meringue, á la baked Alaska.
"We want to highlight the ice cream, and cherish it,” Christina says.
Great Heights Creamery will open on Saturday, April 20 from 12-9 p.m. They will be open Tuesday-Sunday at 1371 Blvd. of the Arts. For more information, click here.
