Toft Dairy’s Ice Cream Parlor

Sandusky

Sitting along a stretch of state Route 6 west of downtown Sandusky, Toft Dairy’s flagship ice cream parlor serves customers yearround. It’s a landmark stop for summer travelers making their way along the Lake Erie shore and the locals who have been coming here for years.

The five-generation family business began in 1900, when Chris and Matilda Toft began selling fresh milk from their horse-drawn wagon, making it Ohio’s oldest dairy. Today, it sources milk from 14 local farms within a 60mile radius.

Although there are also locations at Cedar Point and in Port Clinton, Toft Dairy’s ice cream parlor in Sandusky is the place to go to experience what has made it a northwest Ohio tradition. The old-school parlor’s list of flavors spans 51 varieties and includes creative concoctions like Cedar Point Cotton Candy, Lake Erie Cookie Island Monster (blue vanilla cake batter ice cream mixed with chocolate chips, chunks of cookie dough and chocolate cookies and cream) and Muddy’s Sea Salt Slam (a chocolate-and-salty-caramel-covered-peanut creation honoring the Toledo Mud Hens’ mascot, Muddy.)

Toft Dairy president Chuck Meisler (his Grandma Edna was a Toft) has helped expand the company’s dairy products, including its ice cream, to local grocery stores and other parlors in the region.

“I was hired as the company salesman when Toft’s was already 83 years old,” Meisler says. “Building this from the ground level has been hard work, but fun … and who doesn’t love ice cream?” 3717 Venice Rd., Sandusky 44870, 419/625-5490, toftdairy.com

Sarah Miller