Easy magic chocolate shell ice cream recipe
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Problem Solved
- The Udder Place, a Hornell ice cream shop, is closing after 23 years.
- The shop’s equipment will be used to open a new ice cream shop, The Dairy Barn, in Cameron Mills.
- The Fosters expressed gratitude for their loyal customers and employees.
A “bittersweet” ending is coming for The Udder Place, a popular Hornell ice cream shop that has been serving specialty sundaes, shakes and cones to appreciative customers for more than 20 years.
Owners Gary and Kathy Foster are retiring and closing the business. The last day is July 4.
The couple’s first preference was to sell the store and see it remain open. When that didn’t prove possible, they accepted an unsolicited offer for all of the store’s equipment.
While the quaint 133 East Ave. Extension shop in Hornell will be empty, the owners’ hearts are full with appreciation for their long-time customers and loyal employees.
“The customers are number one. That’s what we are going to miss the most. And our workers,” Gary Foster said.
Kathy Foster added, “The customers here are amazing. They have such positive attitudes. They’re so happy. Some of the kids we’ve seen since they were babies. Now they’re bringing their babies here.
“We’ve met some wonderful people. We’ve met people from Africa, Australia. We have a group from RISE (a New Jersey church group) that comes up every year.”
The store typically employed about a half dozen workers each year, with the season running from March through mid to late August. Many employees have returned year after year, hesitant to say goodbye.
“We just make it fun here for the kids to work,” Gary said. “We have a lot of employees who continue to come back and support us.”
Gary proposed to Kathy at The Udder Place
The Udder Place opened 23 years ago, a new venture for Kathy with her then husband, Peter MacDonald.
But after the shop opened in April of that first year, MacDonald passed away the following November, leaving Kathy to carry on by herself.
About a year later, Gary visited the shop with his parents to get ice cream. He met Kathy and started talking. They became close friends and then more.
Gary eventually proposed marriage.
Naturally, he did it at the store, in front of customers.
She said yes, and the rest is history.
“I came aboard, and we built a business,” Gary said.
‘We try to come up with something new every year’
The Fosters pride themselves on their innovative ice cream creations, especially milkshake flavors and kids’ sundaes.
“We did unicorns, the Baby Shark, the dinosaur. We’re doing an on-the-farm this year, superheroes,” Gary explained, adding that their ice cream supplier, Hershey, used a video of the Udder Place’s Baby Shark sundae in corporate training sessions.
“Mainly, we just try to come up with something new every year,” Kathy said.
When traveling, the couple stops at ice cream shops for inspiration.
“We’re known for our milkshakes, our sundaes. We do a smores milkshake, smores sundae, a lemon cookie shake, a Biscoff shake,” Gary recounted.
Fosters plan retirement, ice cream equipment headed to Cameron Mills
“It’s bittersweet. There’s a lot of history here,” Gary said of the impending closure.
With the sun setting on the business, the Fosters want to make sure customers who have gift certificates use them before it’s too late after July 4.
As for retirement, they say they plan to enjoy more free time with their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
There could be some traveling on their schedule. Many of their customers − even some who live a long distance from Hornell − have become close friends.
“We had this one couple that came from Alabama. They want us to take a vacation and stay in their condo on the beach,” Gary said.
As for The Udder Place’s ice cream equipment, it’s not traveling nearly as far as the deep south. All of the store’s equipment is headed to Cameron Mills, where the Cameron Mills Market plans to open a new ice cream shop next to the grocery store on Route 119.
In a way it’s a homecoming. Peter MacDonald, who was instrumental in getting The Udder Place off the ground, was born and raised in Cameron. Kathy lived in Cameron as well.
The new place in Cameron Mills will be called “The Dairy Barn.”
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