212 East Broughton Street Savannah, Georgia 31401 (912) 234-4442
Savannah Georgia is the Turf Grass Capital of the World. It also has the fourth busiest container port in the U.S. and it's the home of Gulfstream Aerospace. But, most importantly for this review, it is also the hometown of one of America's best ice cream shops. Three brothers founded Leopold's in 1919: George, Peter and Basil Leopold. Peter's youngest son, Stratton Leopold, grew up in the family business and continues the family ice cream making tradition today. The Leopold secret family recipes contain only all natural ingredients and the ice cream is made @ the shop. I never found out exactly what those ingredients were, but Stratton said that they do use local Georgia pecans in their butter pecan ice cream. And, Stratton's father had to taste the fresh cream that came in from the local dairies because some of the farmers let their cows graze in fields that had wild onions growing, so when the cows ate the onions the taste would then be present in the cream. Also the butterfat content of their ice cream is higher than 15% Wow! When you get your scoop of ice cream let it melt just a bit before you eat it. If you do this, it will allow you to enjoy the true rich flavor of the ice cream better. The somewhat melted ice cream spreads more evenly over the taste buds. They also have free ice water to cleanse your palate between different flavors. I tried an excellent mint chocolate chip, an outstandingly rich butter pecan with fresh pecans and a deep and powerfully rich chocolate. I was also able to sample a new flavor that was just introduced @ Leopold's in honor of Savannah's being the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of Girl Scouts of the USA, Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookie Ice Cream. It was outstanding! When he is not making ice cream Stratton Leopold is making movies. Stratton is currently the Supervising Producer for Paramount Pictures. Mission Impossible #3 is just one of the films he has produced. The inside of Leopold's is full of movie posters, original set pieces from some of the movies and photos of Stratton with many of the actors and directors he has worked with. Much of the inside of the shop is new, but the black marble soda fountain, the wooden telephone booth and the back bar are 1919 era originals. Happy eating!
Note: Leopold's is in the process of adding burgers to their menu.
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