Two Scoops Please: Homemade Ice Cream Shop Opens In Port City
SAINT JOHN — Residents with a sweet tooth will have a new place to get their fill next month. Bella’s Traditional Ice Cream is a new shop dedicated to serving small-batch, homemade ice cream in uptown Saint John.
The store is located inside one of the city’s historic buildings at 87 Germain Street and is scheduled to open on May 15. Derek Billingsley is the owner and said the inspiration came from a family vacation.
“We went to Boston a couple of years ago and we found this little ice cream shop in Somerville and [saw that] everybody was happy,” said Billingsley.
“We loved the idea of lineups coming out the door and everybody coming out with a scoop of ice cream.”
For Billingsley, the name of the restaurant is sentimental.
“My grandmother grew up in an old farmhouse in Sunny Corner, N.B. and I had a very close relationship with her,” he said.
“Her middle name was Isabella and I thought it was a nice homage to her.”
Other than being an ice cream connoisseur, Billingsley is also vice-president of customer solutions at Encore Interactive and director of technology at Pulse Communications.
Renovations to the shop have been underway since January.
The parlour’s interior will feature historic loyalist city brick walls and windows where patrons will have room to sit. Customers will even have the option to have their ice cream served in a homemade waffle cone.
Billingsley said he wants Bella’s to be Eco-friendly.
“It’s important [to us] that we’re not contributing to excessive plastic. We have wooden cutlery, we have jars that are reusable,” said Billingsley.
“When you pick up a pint of ice cream, you can bring the jar back for a refund. Everything is meant to either be reused first or composted.”
When coming up with flavours, Billingsley said he reached out to the public for input.
“The recipes came to us through our website,” he said.
“We started soliciting online asking, ‘What kind of [flavours] do you like for ice cream?’ and we got a lot of responses. We have a lot of people who are excited.”
Billingsley hopes Saint John residents enjoy the feeling of nostalgia Bella’s plans to bring to the Uptown landscape.
“It’s that take-you-back-to-your-childhood excitement of having a nice scoop of ice cream on a nice day and we’re really excited to be bringing that here,” he said.
*CORRECTION: Story originally stated Bella’s would open on May 1. Renovation efforts have caused the date to extend to May 15.
