Loblolly Creamery - Hillcrest — Restaurant in Little Rock

For some reason, Little Rock is not an ice cream place. Cities of comparable size in other areas of the country have long offered ice cream outlets galore, both old-fashioned dairy bars and ice cream parlors. But in Little Rock, they've been relatively sparse, perhaps because a powerful national ice yogurt chain was centered in Little Rock and suppressed competion?

Given the dearth of places to buy ice cream locally, I'm really glad that the local creamery Loblolly has opened a store in my neighborhood. I've been there a number of times to buy ice cream, and have to say that the quality of what I bought has varied. This may be because the store is relatively new and is getting onto its feet. If so, I am hopeful that Loblolly will deal with any challenges it's facing due to being a new enterprise, because I'd really like to see this local store succeed.

On my first visit, I found that no ice cream made on the spot was on offer. I could only buy small cartons of ice cream pre-made, presumably off-site (or perhaps made on site and then put into a freezer case?). I chose a container of rocky road, and found its taste was good, with a rich dark chocolate base. But the ice cream had been melted and refrozen at some point and was full of off-putting ice crystals as a result.

On another visit, I was happy to find that Loblolly is now offering soft-serve ice cream made on the spot, chocolate and vanilla. I got cups of each, and found the chocolate very good, again with a rich dark chocolate flavor. The vanilla, however, was a big disappointment. I could not discern any vanilla flavoring at all, just a cream flavor that wasn't itself highly tasty. To my way of thinking, vanilla ice cream should have a robust vanilla flavor.

I'm strongly committed to supporting local food vendors and locally owned restaurants, so I'll keep returning to Loblolly, and am very hopeful any quality-control issues it may be facing as a new place will be ironed out. It's nice to have another ice cream place in the Hillcrest neighborhood, where I have fond memories of another ice cream parlor that opened just up the street west of Loblolly in my early teen years...

Tourist from California. I was referred to Loblolly by a very nice local and they were on point with great local options. I came to visit the store for the first time since im from out of town. I walked in and was greeted by the two of the most friendly people ever. The employees Hannah and Toulouse were both very informative about the offerings and I even enjoyed a good conversation with the both of them. I ordered the 2 scoop in the cup and got pumkin & coffee flavor. Best ice cream I have had in a long time. Upstairs has a great view too. Overall 10/10 experience. Will absolutely recommend. Thank you for a pleasant out of state...

First visit to this location and all four of us wanted to try the Dunkaroo and ended up getting one each. No one could finish it and left us all feeling sick. Had we not already been fans of Loblolly's this would have been a one star review and we would have never gone back. Way to sickeningly sweet and way to much, I would suggest that they serve a smaller portion, or make it a rewarding challenge, because afterwards will not feel rewarding. The staff was awesome, super excited,...