Local Ice Cream Parlour Celebrates 125th Anniversary
/Central Smith Creamery celebrates their 125th anniversary with one-dollar vanilla ice cream cones this Saturday which is considered National Ice Cream Day weekend.
(left to right) Jillian Scates, project manager and co-owners Ian and Jennifer Scates are part of three generations who have been involved with Central Smith Creamery. Photo by David Tuan Bui
The price is a throwback to when the Scates family purchased the business in 1978 and sold ice cream scoops at that price. They chose vanilla as ice cream’s oldest flavour to commemorate the milestone.
"It's a true honour,” said Ian Scates, co-owner of Central Smith. “Sometimes you kind of have to pinch yourself to realize that you've literally been here before cars existed. It's a bit surreal to think that it's been around as long as it has.”
Ian Scates describes working at Central Smith the “longest summer job” of his life. Photo by David Tuan Bui
“Sometimes in life, it's really important to stop and celebrate the milestones,” said Jennifer Scates, co-owner of Central Smith. “The business of life gets us not thinking about the important things and it's important to recognize where we were, where we're going to, celebrate our employees who have helped us along the way and just pause and reflect.”
Central Smith Creamery has over 70 flavours of ice cream where some come in and out of rotation depending on popularity. Photo by David Tuan Bui.
The business has had three generations of the Scates working at Central Smith. Ian’s father, James Scates purchased the business back from the Andrews family in 1978 where Ian first helped the business in 1979. Since then, Ian has been working at Central Smith for 42 years.
His daughter, Jillian Scates graduated in business from Dalhousie University in April 2016 and joined the business starting at the bottom. She has worked her way through as a sales analyst and now as a project manager.
“There's a lot of pride in that we've been able to keep going with the legacy,” said Jennifer. “This place is still in the same place 125 years ago.”
Some of creamery’s top flavours are Algonquin Canoe, Lavender Lemonade and Monster Cookie. Photo by David Tuan Bui.
