Ice cream shop with 2 GA locations expands into Bluffton. Where you can grab a scoop
Bill and Gayle Pollard love to indulge in an after-dinner ice cream.
So when the couple moved to Richmond Hill, they grew frustrated — and hungry — after finding no ice cream shops open later than 6 p.m. Eventually, they took matters into their own hands and opened The Ice Cream Stop in 2009.
Years later, they opened another location in Pooler, and just last week they expanded into South Carolina.
Jan. 7 marked the grand opening for the Bluffton shop at 2700 May River Crossing, off the roundabout connecting S.C. 170 and May River Road near the new Publix and Starbucks.
They took over the location in April and planned to open in July, Gayle Pollard said, “but just with 2021 being 2021, a lot of different challenges and delays and this and that, we had to just kind of roll with it.”
She said the grand opening and the days following were extremely busy, perhaps because the community had been anticipating after watching the shop slowly transform over months, and in part because they’d made regulars out of some customers who visited three days in a row.
“Everybody’s been very warm and receptive to us,” Pollard said. “We can’t ask for anything more than that.”
As at their other shops, customers can indulge in any of dozens of flavors of hand-scooped ice creams, thick milkshakes, malts, floats, Dole soft serve and non-dairy options.
Unique to Bluffton is the chocolate and vanilla soft serve, but Lowcountry folks seem to enjoy a banana split.
“We’ve been selling a lot of banana splits this last week,” Pollard said. “I couldn’t believe how many bananas we’ve been through. We joke it’s a full meal in itself.”
Choosing Bluffton as the spot for their third shop was a no-brainer for the Pollards. Gayle’s mother, Paula, lives in Sun City, so they had visited the area often.
“My mom actually bought us our first two freezers” at the first shop, Pollard said. “The joke is that made her the president of the company, and now she can go right down the street for some ice cream.”
Appropriately, Paula’s photo was the first hung on the walls of the Bluffton store. Pollard said she and her husband are excited to snap photos of customers enjoying their ice cream. They’ll hang those photos until the wall is full, a tradition in their other shops.
For now, they’re just happy to be open and operating with a full staff. They can’t wait to get more involved in the community.
“It’s just a happy product,” Pollard said. “Where are you going to go wrong with ice cream?”
The Bluffton location opens at noon seven days a week, closes at 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
