Ice cream parlor celebrates 100 years
It’s tough to beat the special old-fashioned experience at Gessert’s
ELKHART LAKE – Order a single cone at Gessert’s Ice Cream and Confectionery and you get two scoops of Cedar Crest Ice Cream. Three scoops in a double cone.
Extra licks lengthen the leisurely summer indulgence of enjoying an ice cream. At Gessert’s, that’s a chance to chat with family and friends while seated in a 1920s era wooden booth. Or look at black and white photos of Gessert’s dating back to its opening in 1922. Big band and jazz music playing in the background provides the cherry on top of this old-fashioned ice cream parlor experience.
From the green lettering and striped awning over the entrance to the vintage Coca-Cola sign in the backroom, it’s more than the ice cream that makes Gessert’s special, say owners Ryan and Michelle Moeller.
“It’s not just what you’re eating, it’s the experience ... the fun atmosphere,” Michelle said.
It’s not just ice cream
When you walk through Gessert’s entrance, the ice cream and confections compete for your sweet tooth.
Homemade fudge anchors the wood and glass display case to your right. Chocolates, hard candy, gummies and sweet treats fill the rest of the display case and jars on top of the counter, behind the counter and shelves. It’s a sugar retreat for kids of all ages.
On the other side, Gessert’s crew pours batter into waffle makers for cones. They make 200 to 300 cones a day during peak visitor (and ice cream) season from July through August. Hand-dipped ice cream — choose from 24 flavors — fills cones and dishes. Or gets blended into malts or shakes.
Despite the tempting aroma of fresh waffles, the Moellers say banana splits and sundaes are big sellers.
Chocolate ice cream sodas (yes, made with chocolate syrup) are particularly popular with the more seasoned ice cream parlor veterans.
“We’ve got generations coming here since they were little kids and they’re bringing their grandkids, which is really cool,” Michelle said.
It’s all about the tradition
Bernice and Harry Gessert opened a confectionery in 1922 in the building to the left of the current location. After a few successful years, the Gesserts moved the business next door to 99 S. Lake St.
The Gesserts lived with their daughter, Yvonne, above the store until she was 8 years old. That’s when they moved in with Harry’s father, Cornelius, in the house across the street. Cornelius had been instrumental in securing funds to open the confectionery and when not delivering mail, his full-time job, helped as needed with the growing business.
Yvonne still lives in the house, and said she still visits with Gessert’s customers who have become friends through the years.
Gessert’s Ice Cream and Confectionery carried goods that appealed to tourists. Inflatable toys for a trip to the nearby lake. Film for cameras. Sunscreen. Bug spray and so forth.
Open from 6:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m., Gessert’s served breakfast, lunch, dinner and late night lunches. Gessert’s served sandwiches and malted milks to the night owls.
“I did nothing but make malts and malts and malts during the second lunch,” Yvonne said.
To keep Gessert’s open 19 hours, they hired college students and local folks looking for supplemental income. Many of the college women who worked as servers for the summer stayed in a dormitory-style room above the shop.
Sometime in the late ‘60s, Yvonne said, her parents stopped serving full meals.
Yvonne, who had started working in the shop at age 13, helped her family run the business until her parents retired in 1978. That’s when Yvonne and her husband, Ed Landgraf, become Gessert’s owners.
It remained a Gessert family business until 2015.
“When you’re in business that long, you become a little tired and the enthusiasm wanes,” Yvonne said of the decision to sell Gessert’s.
She was looking for someone who is enthusiastic and knew what they were getting into.
That’s where Ryan and Michelle come in. They were already running a successful ice cream parlor, South Pier Parlor in Sheboygan. Furthermore, Yvonne said the Moellers respected the Gessert name and seemed enthusiastic.
Ryan’s enthusiasm for ice cream parlors dates back to his childhood.
“We’d go camping and go find an ice cream parlor. We’d go to Door County, go to the ice cream parlor. We’d go to Michigan, go to the ice cream parlor. That was just the thing we did,” Ryan said.
As Ryan and Michelle were raising kids of their own, Ryan wanted to take them to an ice cream parlor. At the time, Sheboygan lacked such a place.
“I thought, we need an ice cream parlor,” Ryan said.
The Moellers spent a year visiting and researching historic ice cream parlors in Wisconsin and the Midwest.
In 2010, they opened South Pier Parlor and within a few years became successful enough for Ryan to quit his fulltime job in roofing sales.
“I like the old ice cream parlors, the ones that have been around, so we modeled the design of South Pier around that 1920s to 1930s look,” Ryan said. “So that’s why I was so interested in this. It’s an authentic 1920s parlor.”