There”™s no taste of politics in this write-in election.
For the past two months, Longford’s Own-Made Ice Cream the ice cream maker has been polling customers at its newest location in Old Greenwich to see which new flavor will win and be created.
Longford”™s founders are using July, coincidentally national ice cream month, to launch the new flavor. The stack of suggestions is 200 cards thick. The winning flavor is expected to be picked this week.
Longford”™s opened its newest store on Sound Beach Avenue in Old Greenwich in April.
The first Longford”™s was found in 1990 by Nolan and Patricia West in Rye, N.Y. A second store is in Larchmont.
The family owned business is based in Port Chester and produces artisan ice cream with traditions born on Nolan West”™s family dairy farm in Ireland”™s Longford County.
The husband and wife say they are committed to creating, “delicious ice creams, scrumptious sorbets and tasty frozen yogurts of unparalleled quality.”
“It”™s about the product not about how many flavors we can offer,” said Patricia West. “It”™s about the creamy texture and the great taste and that”™s what people get hooked on. In Rye we”™ve weathered the storm of both Baskin Robbins and a Cold Stone, and now they”™re both gone, and that”™s what Tom Banca, the company”™s licensee and location owner, wants to bring to Fairfield County.”
“It”™s the neighborhood ice-cream shop that everyone loves,” said Banca.
Banca was the former owner of the Baskin Robbins which previously held the Old Greenwich location. According to Banca, he found the Longford name through their Rye location and was interested to bring a family styled ice-cream to Old Greenwich.
“Having had a commercial brand here I saw that it was very susceptible to competition, every time something new would open sales would drop,” said Banca. “I decided to put a quality product in here that was unique to the point where people would come to me and travel from other areas, just like in Rye. Some people have tasted it and come back the same day.”
In the Rye location, taste suggestions have resulted in the creation of ”˜peppermint stick,”™ found on their boards year round as one of the most popular flavors.
“We can tailor make any type of flavor in response to the likes and dislikes of any community,” said Patricia West.
Paralleling their three retail operations, referred to in-house as The Scoop Group, the company also distributes their products to restaurants, hotels, caterers and country clubs in Fairfield and Westchester counties.
