Jones' Homemade Ice Cream Shoppe — Restaurant in Pleasant Plains Township

My husband has been telling me about Jones for 15 years, and we finally had a chance to visit.

What's GREAT: the ice cream is tasty, the waffle cones were delicious, the flavors were good, the sizes were large, the price was reasonable, and the people who helped us were friendly. I wish I could give them 5 stars, but.....

What's NOT great: the manager was awful. We visited Jones three times in a week, and the only good visit was when we didn't see her. One day, she was rude to a customer (the customer had requested a single scoop, then changed her mind to a double scoop after the cashier had already rung up the order, and the manager had to override the order and was clearly annoyed even though it meant more business for her). And the next time she was extremely rude to her employees, so much so that it made all the customers uncomfortable. There were several employees working the counter and several others in back (making ice cream, I presume). An elderly couple came in, stood for a bit, and ultimately left. When they did, she absolutely berated her employees and we all heard it, and it was awkward. She raged about how they just lost TWO PAYING CUSTOMERS and they needed to work harder and faster. I mean, it was so demotivating that I wouldn't have been surprised if her employees walked out. But given their reactions, I surmised that this was her typical demeanor.

Such a great place but they really need to get a manager who can better manage people and make customers feel welcome (or, at least not make us feel bad).

So, 5 stars for everything else and 0 stars for a...

The ice cream was OK but the service was terrible and they had way too many employees working. Stopped on the way through town hoping for some good homemade ice cream. When we walked in, there were at least 11 workers behind the counter goofing off and not paying attention to who walked in. Not sure why an ice cream parlor would need 11 or more people working with only 2 sets of customers. The worker who took our order was very slow, especially when his coworker started talking to him about what they were doing outside of work. Being the only customers at the counter, we should have been in and out very quickly but that wasn't the case. The manager was pretty loud asking where her employees were and loudly telling our server he will not be watching the fireworks since he will be working. Now on to the ice cream. I got Mackinac island fudge and it tasted like Meijer brand, which I like, but I would have thought homemade would be much better. I kept thinking it wasn't actually homemade. Our server had dirty hands when he was making our flurry that left the cup muddy with a hair on it. Overall, it was not a great experience. As we left, two servers were fighting over who would take care of the next customer...

It's hard to know what to say here that others havnt already said. This is an absolute gem of a place and I don't want to downplay how much I enjoyed it, and I'm not even a big sweets guy.

I say that, but I realize I am a big "nostalgia" guy, and I grew up near another home made ice cream place in Plainwell, and my dad would take us there often in the summer. Jone's smacks of thst same feel, like a time capsule for us 40-somethings who remember original Nintendo and just cruising the neighborhood to find some kids to play with as long as we were back by dark and big family road trip vacations at 3am in the Buick.... Jone's brings all that back with a feel. With an air of unassuming consciousness to stick to what its patrons know and love and miss.

Their ice cream was very tasty too, on-par with that other home-made ice cream establishment from my youth. The waffle cones are superb. But, just like Stranger Things, it is the feeling of simpler times gone by and the reminder of the peace and simple joys of my youth that will keep me going back. Aaaaand also the ice cream lol.

It was really busy on a late summer Saturday afternoon, but we enjoyed the buzz of humanity. I will gladly go...