Red’s Eats gets all the press – television and magazine features, even a recent book – but next door, down a set of granite steps, lies an equal treasure: Lear’s Old-Fashioned Ice Cream.
Husband and wife owners Ron and Pam Lear admit their famous neighbor doesn’t hurt business. With plenty of time, thanks to Red’s Eats’ notoriously long lines, “The wife comes in for shakes and cones while the husband orders,” Ron Lear said.
Not that Lear’s can’t stand on its own. With 32 delicious, inventive flavors of homemade ice cream, as well as sundaes, milkshakes and (new this year) fudge, Lear’s is building their own loyal fan base.
Some families, Pam Lear said, stop by early in their vacations and return every day until they leave. “We had a family from London that came here every day of their vacation,” she said.
Each day, the Lears recommended various sites to visit, and each day the family came back to share reports of their excursions – and eat more ice cream. On the final day of the family’s vacation, the Lears gave them a lobster buoy as a parting gift. “They were going to go home to their brand new house and put it on the mantle,” Pam Lear said.
“[We] get people from all over the world… it’s really interesting to hear the stories,” Pam Lear said. “They all come in to say goodbye. It’s great. We really ought to just call it the ice cream social.”
The Lears’ ice cream might fit in well at an old-fashioned ice cream social. “We make every bit of it at our home here in Wiscasset,” Pam Lear said.
“You start with your ice cream base,” Ron Lear said.
“It’s basically milk fat,” Pam Lear said. “Sixteen percent milk fat.”
The important decisions come next. “We just come up with the ideas of different flavors we want to have,” Pam Lear said.
One early suggestion, Green Apple, came from the Lear’s son, Garret, and was initially met with skepticism. “Nobody’s going to want Green Apple,” Pam Lear said. “But we tried it and it’s one of our most popular flavors.”
When the mixture is ready, the Lears “put it through [our] batch freezer [and] freeze it for about seven minutes,” Ron Lear said. “It comes out like soft serve, then it has to go to a blast freezer for 24 hours. After 24 hours it’s here in the shop or in the vending trailer.”
The Lears make ice cream once or twice a week, 32 two and a half gallon tubs at a time.
“We tried to deal with just Maine companies to get our [ingredients],” Ron Lear said. Even flavors with out of state ingredients often share a Maine theme, like Mud Flats, a blend of coffee, black raspberries and Heath bars.
Other Maine offerings include Native Maine Blueberry ice cream, Moxie shakes and Needham, a coconut ice cream with chocolate chips named for the famous chocolate-covered coconut bars once made in a Lewiston factory.
Ron and Pam Lear’s favorite flavors, however, are national staples: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip and Old-Fashioned Butter Pecan, respectively.
Many flavors include crunchy bits of their key ingredient, like generous, crumbly chunks of pistachio or tangy pieces of ginger, an unusual flavor, but rewarding for those brave enough to experiment.
Some customers like to mix several flavors for custom milkshakes, and the Lears are happy to oblige. Occasionally, they said, a customer’s creation evolves into a regular offering. Ron Lear sounded grateful for whoever came up with chocolate mint. “It tastes like a York peppermint patty,” he said.
After experimenting with as many as 40 ice cream flavors in their first season last year, the Lears now make 32. Their appearance saw changes, too, as they moved their service counter from the basement of Wiscasset’s Old General Store into an adjoining room that served as a seating area last year. The new location offers better lighting and a view of the Sheepscot River.
The Lears also own a vending trailer they set up at local events, including the Wiscasset Raceway, the recent Cal Ripken all-star baseball tournament and, throughout the July 4 weekend, at the Wiscasset waterfront.
On top of the shop and the trailer, the Lears sell their ice cream to Chewonki Campground, and at least one local shop, Treats, has inquired about carrying Lear’s ice cream. Right now, Pam Lear said, the family can’t keep up with demand.
Both Lears work full-time for the town of Wiscasset. Pam Lear works in maintenance at the municipal building, while Ron Lear is the Wiscasset Transfer Station Supervisor. Both Lears are Mainers, but only Pam is a Wiscasset native. “Born and raised, never been allowed out of town yet,” she said. Her husband is “from away,” Pam jokes.
“I moved here from Belfast 31 years ago,” Ron Lear said.
Pam and Ron Lear rely on their children, Garret and Kristin, to help run the shop. “They definitely do their fair share,” Pam Lear said.
“Especially on production day,” Ron Lear added. “They have to work the whole day.”
That kind of side-by-side labor was part of the reason the Lears bought the shop in the first place. For years, Jack Carlton ran Carlton’s ice cream out of the same location. “I went to school with Jack Carlton’s daughter,” Pam Lear said. “I always loved how she worked with her father in the summer.”
As the Lears mulled over the decision, the prospect of sharing that same relationship with their own children came into play. “The kids are getting older and they need summer jobs,” Pam Lear said.
“We bought it on April Fool’s,” Pam Lear said. [We’re] still trying to figure out if it’s a joke or not.” Kidding aside, Lear said, “It’s better than we ever thought it would be.”
Lear’s Old-Fashioned Ice Cream is open May 1 through mid-Oct. seven days a week from 1-9 p.m. next door to Red’s Eats on Water Street in Wiscasset. Pam Lear advises customers to watch their step on the way in. “We tell people that they keep the best things in the basement,” she said. For more information, or to become a fan, Lear’s Old-Fashioned Ice Cream can be found on Facebook.
