Grassroots opening Simsbury location

Grassroots Ice Cream + Street Food, with award-winning craft ice cream flavors that match its slogan “wicked good,” is set to open its third location next month.

The shop’s homemade ice cream will soon be served by the scoop at 2 Wilcox St. in the Fiddler’s Green Shops in the heart of Simsbury’s historic district. The new location, with a full-sized kitchen, will serve up dozens of ice cream flavors as well as wraps, sandwiches, salads and rice bowls.

“We want to be in the center of town,” co-owner Mark Sproule said. “The location presents the opportunity to be right in the middle of the downtown core and really part of the revitalization in the area. We envision it as a location where families, kids, students are congregating on a pretty regular basis and hopefully that allows us to be at the center of what goes on in town.”

Sproule, his wife Jenn and their brother-in-law Brandon Pappalardo, took ownership two years ago of the well-established ice cream spot and accompanying eatery, Deep Roots Street Food. Eliza and Lee Florian opened the original Grassroots inside the former Avery’s General Store at 4 Park Place on the Granby town green. The Sproules and Pappalardo expanded with another location last year in New Milford.

“Eliza Florian really built the concept and we’re bringing that with us,” Sproule said. “We’re adding a few items to the menu but we’re keeping that successful model. We’re also planning on a takeout area to ensure a little better balance on the flow of customers taking out and eating in. We will also have a patio for customers who want to eat outside. But we’re going to keep a lot of the design features we already have in our Granby location.”

Grassroots has been frequently cited as a top ice cream destination in the state, named among the Top 100 Places to Eat in 2021 by thousands of Yelp reviewers nationwide. The ice cream shop has also been named among the best in New England by Yankee Magazine and New England Home Magazine.

“I think we’re very lucky that the quality of our food is what separates up apart,” Jenn Sproule said. “We use high-end fresh ingredients and everything is made on premises. I think you can really taste that in everything we serve. The unique flavors we offer are really special and there’s nothing

more joyful than going out for ice cream. We talk about serving scoops and smiles here.”

The ice cream shop’s flagship Granby location serves up 36 unique ice cream flavors including goat cheese black berry, rose chocolate, blood orange chip, salted caramel bacon brittle, double oreo, honeycomb toffee, Kentucky candied pecan, and mint brownie among other flavors. Grassroots also offers vegan dairyfree ice cream as well.

“We’re constantly experimenting with flavors,” Pappalardo said. “We have around 130 unique offerings that we’re constantly working into the menu and rotating throughout the year. We have an ice cream team that’s constantly looking for new flavors.”

Pappalardo comes to Connecticut from Texas, where he was a sous-chef at The Grape restaurant, a longtime Dallas institution that closed its doors in 2020. When his brother-in-law told him about the possibility of taking over Grassroots, he immediately jumped on board as co-owner and head chef.

“When I moved here and made the drive up, I literally stopped at every ice cream place I could find,” Pappalardo said. “I wanted to get every flavor I liked and try it out to come up with new ideas for Grassroots. I wanted to blend all of the flavors I tried.”

Deep Roots Street Food

Grassroots, while known for its ice cream, also serves up “gourmet street food” that aims to satisfy more than a sweet tooth.

Deep Roots Street Food, the culinary side of Grassroots Ice Cream, serves sandwiches, wraps, salads, and bowls. The idea is that the food is served like street food — portable and prepared quickly.

“Our ingredients are fresh, which gives a lot of flavor. It really is gourmet in a fast-casual setting,” Pappalardo said. “Deep Roots Street Food was already established when I came, but I just took some of the recipes and tweaked them a bit. I also added some additions like tacos and rice bowls and substituted some ingredients to get the flavor punching a bit more. We didn’t want to change too much from the original menu. Eliza Florian did a great job with the menu we inherited.”

Among the more popular items on the menu are a barbecue pulled-pork grilled cheese, a falafel pita sandwich, a Turkish Berliner with shaved beef and lamb, purple cabbage, bell pepper, feta dressing, and tzatziki sauce, and a bahn mi with pickled daikon radish and carrots, cucumbers, jalapeños, and sweet chili vinegar dressing in a house baked baguette.

“Our hairdresser salad is also extremely popular and a fan favorite for sure,” Pappalardo said. “It’s crunchy and full of flavor. We could also make it vegan with our house made Tahini dressing to ensure anyone can order it.”

The hairdresser salad comes packed with lettuce, feta cheese, tomato, carrot, bell peppers, cucumber, olives, pepperoncini, tzatziki sauce, crispy chickpeas, pita sticks, two falafel balls, French fries, red wine vinaigrette and a scoop of hummus. Several rice bowls and a Vietnamese noodle salad with lettuce, cabbage, pickled carrot and daikon, scallions, rice noodles, and a side of peanut sauce, and sweet chili vinegar can also be ordered.

Sproule and Pappalardo said they envision having the current menu favorites available in Simsbury with some additions.

“I’m very excited to create some new offerings,” Pappalardo said. “We haven’t yet announced anything but that’s something we’re aiming for.”

Community Ice Cream Shop

Sproule, a Connecticut native who lives in Ridgefield with Jenn and their four children, said that he envisions each Grassroots location as a gathering place at the center of the community they serve.

“I grew up in New Canaan and been in Connecticut my whole life,” Sproule said. “If we look at our Granby location, at the centerpiece of the town and community there, the location in Simsbury also promotes that same opportunity. It’s been important to us to build around the area we love. I think Connecticut is a beautiful place and so we’re excited to build our family businesses in the center of the communities we’re in.”

Jenn Sproule, an English teacher at St. Luke’s School in New Canaan, said she will be leaving her teaching job in June to work full time with Grassroots.

“Like all small businesses, this is truly a family run, all-hands-on-deck operation,” she said. “So I’m really excited about joining the team full time with my brother and husband. We are so lucky to have such an incredible team here at Grassroots. I sort of think of it as like the 1950s soda shop where everyone can get together as part of the community.”