NJisntBoring Ice Cream Quest:: Penguin Ice Cream in Bernardsville

The quaint little downtown of Bernardsville is home to Penguin Ice Cream; a homemade, family run ice cream shop located on Claremont Road.

This ice cream shop officially opened Thanksgiving Weekend in 2009. Owner Tom Och worked in corporate for 35 years and dreamed of having  his own small business. He wanted his ice cream shop to be a unique, nostalgic destination in his town of Bernardsville where people could run into each other and meet. Two years ago Penguin Ice Cream became so successful that Tom left corporate to do ice cream full time.

Penguin Ice Cream is open year round and has thirty-four homemade ice cream flavors as well as 2-4 non-dairy Italian ices (which are also homemade!). They don’t have any inventory because their ice cream is “cow to cone in 4 days”. All of their cream is fresh and comes from 17 local dairy farms.

Their creative flavors include seasonal flavors like Gracie’s Ginger Snap and Annie’s Apple Pie (both named after their family’s dogs), Susan’s Espresso (named after one of their frequent customers), seasonal fruit flavors like key lime pie, banana chip and their award winning Mexican Chocolate Chilly Ice Cream (while supplies last) which won at their district’s annual chili competition.

Their Italian Ices include Lemon, Blue Raspberry, a seasonal Root Beer, and their signature Italian Ice: Swedish Fish.

I had two full ice cream cones (their waffle cones are homemade!) while I was there. The first being their most popular flavor, the Salted Caramel Toffee.

As well as their Cherry Vanilla Bean…

I can personally vouch that their ice cream is delicious!

Unique things you’ll find at Penguin Ice Cream are their “fish in every dish”, meaning every ice cream comes with a Swedish Fish (because penguins eat fish!). They also make their own ice cream cakes, have ice cream for dogs, and they have a special bell for ringing in special occasions for their customers.  Oh…and there’s the Antarctica Sundae…

If you aren’t local to the area and you just started hearing about Penguin Ice Cream, that is probably due to their new social media presence started by Tom’s daughter Caroline who does all their Facebook and Instagram posts. Tom proudly admitted that their social media has helped bring in new customers.

It’s easy to see why people in town visit all year round! Definitely check them out for an ice cream date, or dessert after catching dinner at the many restaurants in Bernardsville!

For additional information on Penguin Ice Cream visit their Website, Facebook, and Instagram

For my full list of highly recommended New Jersey Ice Cream Places as part of my NJIB Ice Cream Quest, Click HERE