Penny Lick Ice Cream — Restaurant in Town of Greenburgh

Penny Lick Ice Cream is a gem in Hastings. Like the origin of their name, it's a petite store but it packs a lot of wow for their size.

You would expect an ice cream shop to have good ice cream, so I'll talk about that last. But in a world full mass produced chain franchises of 31 flavors, ice cream with umlauts, or big ice cream that's more about the looks than the ice cream itself, Penny Lick stands out as a local owner-operated business that makes all of their product fresh. To do this well, you need a great staff and this is part of what makes Penny Lick stand out from the rest.

We celebrated my daughter's 10th birthday party here. They have a cozy space in the back for a nice sized party. The kids had some pizza to buffer the upcoming sugar rush, then the owners gave the kids a lesson in what it takes to not only run an ice cream shop (with a good explanation of why the industrial equipment was special) to actually making fresh ice cream and cotton candy. The kids were glad enough to be gorging in sugar but the fact they got to make and eat their own ice cream was extra special and exciting for the kids. The staff was great with kids, especially the owner who kept the chaos of sugared up kids running around industrial kitchen equipment under control.

We found out about Penny Lick because they were local sponsors of the Pleasantville Music Festival. After the party we had a conversation with owner and we were glad to discover that they had plans for expanding their operations with additional manufacturing space. Not only are they contributing to the community in participating in events like the Pleasantville Music Festival, but their staff comes from the area such as current and graduated students from the local schools. I'm glad to see a locally owned and operated business do so well in the area.

As for the ice cream itself, I want to first mention something I've seen in some of the other comments. People have said "the ice cream literally tasted like water, there wasn't any flavor to it" -- I know exactly what the person means, but I disagree entirely.

My first reaction when I tried the fresh ice cream was "wow this isn't very sweet" and I thought maybe it was something wrong because the kids were making it. Then I remembered that I watched the kids make it with the staff and everything was carefully measured. This is when I realized -- this is what ice cream is * supposed to taste like *. I think everyone who is used to commercially produced ice cream (or sweets in general) has had their tastes skewed by commercially produced product. Not only is commercially produced sweets almost always made with HFCS, even if the product is made with ordinary sugar they likely use too much of it.

The ice cream is amazing. When in the back kitchen you see all of the real and natural ingredients they use, from "Onyx Cocoa" to Cocoa Nibs, real crystallized ginger, they make their own candy, etc. Most importantly they use real sugar and no HFCS. So I disagree that the ice cream is "flavorless" -- It's not overly sweet and does not overpower the great ingredients they use. If you try their ice cream, you'll want to savor it because the ingredients are top quality and everything is very fresh.

I'm glad that Penny Lick is keeping the classic ice cream shop alive and glad they're doing such a...

Had one of our few yearly trips to Penny Lick today to treat our peanut allergic son. Ice cream was delicious as always. We got to sample a few flavors before deciding. The gentleman working the counter was amazing as always. He is such a delight and always chats with us. Knows all about the flavors available and helps with deciding what to get. We got to sit and enjoy chatting with him while eating our ice creams, and our son even get seconds after deciding he'd like to try a milkshake- something he doesn't get to do often due to his severe peanut allergy. We are so thankful for peanut free stores such as this, where our son can be comfortable and have a moment of normalcy. If we didn't like 1.5 hrs away, we would visit at least weekly. We normally bring a cooler with ice and ice packs to take pints home, but today we did not have that with us. Love their take home pints!! Will be back soon!! Thank...

Tldr; The bad customer service is not worth the mediocre dessert.

We thought we would show up to quickly grab some ice cream and go home. We show up first and a family shows up after us. We decide what we want in about 2 mins while this family cuts us in line and takes probably 10- 15 mins to make up their mind, all the while the man working sees me holding the ice cream, ready to pay and leave and does NOTHING. He lets this family cut us in line AND makes us wait an extra 7 minutes when we were already ready to leave. When we finally made it to the register, there was no apology for the wait or any acknowledgement of what had just happened. TERRIBLE customer service. Finally tried the ice cream when I got home at it was just okay. Nothing special. I will be telling anyone and everyone I know who is considering stopping by here to not. The bad customer service is not worth the...