Johnson’s Real Ice Cream

The key to the longevity of Johnson’s Real Ice Cream isn’t just the shop’s fresh and locally sourced ingredients. It’s also the legacy of the five generations of family members who have served customers at its location along East Main Street in Bexley.

What started in a wartime meat-storage locker in the 1940s with chocolate and vanilla ice cream has grown into a local favorite that serves more than 60 flavors, including seasonally rotating favorites, at its Bexley location that opened in 1950 as well as at shops in Dublin and New Albany.

“We source local ingredients when we can,” says Matt Wilcoxon, president of Johnson’s Real Ice Cream. “Krema Nut Co. for instance, all of our nuts and peanut butters are sourced locally. We source within about a 300-mile radius.”

The Bexley store started as a walkup stand, but now customers can come in and sit in one of the

Bexley

1950s-style booths after ordering from the chalk-written menu. The Salty Caramel Chocolate Pretzel Trap beckons those looking for a sweet-and-salty swirl of flavor, but the real standout for Wilcoxon is the shop’s Triple Trouble Vanilla Bean.

“People say to me all the time, ‘You guys have 60-some flavors, and your favorite flavor is vanilla?’ ” says Wilcoxon. “You can taste somebody’s vanilla, and you can tell if they know what they’re doing, and everything starts with the base of vanilla.”

During the summer, you’ll find customers sitting under one of the umbrella-topped tables enjoying cones and sundaes like so many families have before.

“They come to reminisce. There’s just so many different stories and that’s something that’s special,” says Wilcoxon. 2728 E. Main St., Bexley 43209, 614/2310014, johnsonsrealicecream.com

Gracie Wilson

Anyone making a visit to Zanesville at some point be directed to Tom’s Ice Cream Bowl, a local institution with a frozen-in-time appearance. It has been a fixture along McIntire Avenue since 1950, two years after owners Jack Hemmer and Tom Mirgon originally founded the Jack Hemmer Ice Cream Co. in a small space on Linden Avenue.

In 1953, Mirgon took over the place and renamed the business Tom’s Ice Cream Bowl four years later. When he retired, he sold the shop to manager Bill Sullivan, who then sold it to Joe Baker in 2019. Baker began as a dishwasher at Tom’s Ice Cream Bowl in 1977 and quickly worked his way up to manager.