Grassroots Ice Cream

Careful, They May Have a Grass and Root Vegetable Flavor
Grass Roots Creamery, Granby, Simsbury, & New Milford
Original visit: September 2014

“Grass Roots Ice Cream” in Granby became “Grassroots Ice Cream & Street Food” with newer locations in Simsbury and New Milford. This was originally written in 2014, added to in 2018 and 2024. Edits, corrections, and updates throughout. The original owners, described below, sold the business in 2022. It was the new owners expanded the hours to include Sunday and opened the other 2 locations, all on the foundation that the founders Eliza and Lee built.

When we first visited Grass Roots in the center of Granby, everything was basic… except the extraordinary ice cream. Their website was barebones, the space was in need of renovation, and I believe the owners were the only employees. Back then, their website had nothing but their hours, location, and simple philosophy.

That philosophy was and is “Lovely ice cream made from real food (like strawberries, peaches, berries, nuts, chocolate, and coconut. No artificial dyes or colorings. Natural and organic toppings.” That statement no longer appears on their website, but that ethos is still full intact.

But what a great way to start an ice cream business. After all, why bother with wasting time with a fancy website when Grass Roots had ice cream to make? And not just any ol’ ice cream, mind you, but some of the most fanciful, creative, and delicious ice cream in the state. This place had only been open for a year or so, but it vaulted into the upper echelon of Connecticut homemade ice cream joints already. Easily. (And they have a very nice website now.)

I first heard about Grass Roots via an article my friend Leeanne Griffin wrote about them for the Hartford Courant. “Hm,” I thought, “that’s not too far from my office and when I take the boys hiking up in Simsbury or Granby, it makes for a perfect post-hike treat!”

Just one thing back then… back when my boys were young and compliant and went hiking with me in the mid 20-teens – Grass Roots wasn’t open on Sundays. And I pretty much only take the boys hiking on Sundays. Oh well, there’s still Tulmeadow Farm and J. Foster’s in Simsbury for us I guess. Though both are a bit of a step down from Grass Roots.

[A few things on this – retained here for historic reasons as all locations are now open on Sundays – while we were there and talking to the owner, I said, “I wish you were open on Sundays!” to which she replied, “Well, we’re not,” and that was that. Just yesterday, a Sunday, I hiked in North Granby with my sons and drove right past Grass Roots at 1 PM. It would have been perfect. On their Facebook page someone just wrote today, “I wish you were open on Sundays” and their response was the same. I imagine they’d get far more customers on Sundays than they do Monday-Wednesday. That’s their prerogative and everyone needs time off.]

So instead of a post-hike treat with the boys, my wife Hoang and I took our younger son Calvin here as a post-summer, pre-pre-school treat. Although at three, he’s too young to appreciate the import of our Grass Roots visit, he enjoyed it all the same – much more than he enjoyed starting school the next day, that’s for sure. (I mean, think about it… if he goes to a 4-year college, the poor dear has 18 years of schooling ahead of him.)

Upon entering, we were greeted by one-half of the husband and wife ownership/ice-cream geniuses team: Eliza Florian. She was as sweet as her concoctions and very welcoming. You’d sort of expect that from a small independently owned shop of any stripe, but I can tell you that’s not always the case.

We were initially overwhelmed with all the ice cream choices. The array of new-to-us flavors and combos was incredible. But how do these “wacky” flavors taste?

In a word – delicious. If you are curious about the Grass Roots menu, they have a huge array of flavors.

Apparently this whole “let’s just come up with our own new flavors” thing started with a little boredom and a lot of creativity and experimentation. An early experiment, a lavender-honey ice cream, went through a few iterations before it was nailed – and it sure was nailed. That first batch sold out in a day and is now usually available.

You can expect around 20 flavors that are unique and of them, you’ve most likely never heard of, let alone tasted, about 10 of them. And of those 20, I’m willing to bet 20 of them are perfectly made. Of course, your personal preference may not like all 20, but that’s not the point.

For his part, Calvin demanded the deepest, darkest, chocolatiest chocolate flavor. I don’t recall what it was called exactly, but it contained some serious cacao and bitter chocolate. He loved it – and Eliza noted that he “must be a true connoisseur.” Why yes, yes he is. Just disregard the (“all natural”) gummies he demanded on top.

Hoang had the salted caramel with another scoop of Mexican hot chocolate. The latter is “dark chocolate, cinnamon, clove, and a touch of heat.” I too had the Mexican hot chocolate and it was divine.

For my second scoop, I had Cardamom Cashew. Just because it was “cardamom cashew.” I know, right? It was also delicious. What I found was that with all the inventiveness, there is much care taken not to overwhelm each flavor with wackiness. The flavors are all there, yes, but they don’t dominate you at all.

I love this place. Eliza watched us enjoy our first Grass Roots experience like a mother duck watching her ducklings swim for the first time. At first I found it a little annoying, but I immediately realized she simply cares about her baby. And she wants people to give her honest feedback about it. (And, frankly, she was probably leery about Calvin eating an “adult” flavor.)

The name of the business came from the following heartbreak:

The owners’ 2 year old son suddenly passed away due to an un-diagnosed disease, adrenal lucodystrophy (ALD). This could have been treated if there was newborn screening for this disease. With other affected families, they fought to have a newborn screening bill passed in the CT Legislature. The politicians thanked them for our “grassroots effort” to pass the bill which was signed into law on the day Grass Roots Ice Cream opened for business.

You can tell how much I love this place by the word count on this page. There usually isn’t all the much to write about an ice cream shop. In the case of Grass Roots, there is simply too much.

And I haven’t even (yet) had the Blood Orange Chocolate Chip, the Chai Tea, the Lemon Ginger, the Butter Rum Brownie, the Honey Butter Sunflower Seed (?!), the Lime Chocolate Chip, the Molasses Oatmeal Cookie, the Pumpkin Oreo, the… you get the point.

Go. Get to Granby’s town green and Grass Roots Creamery ASAP. It’s much more rewarding than reading this page, I promise.

2018

I’ve taken my advice and have revisited Grass Roots many times since our 2014 introduction. They are still closed on Sundays in 2018, but in spite of that, they have developed a bit of a cult following.

A cult to which I am proud to belong. In the 4 years since I first visited, Grass Roots has thought about expanding beyond Granby a few times. Through conversations with the owners and with other friends, I believe they thought about West Hartford Center (prohibitive rent, tons of competition) and perhaps something at the former Get Baked space in Windsor. I’m sure there were other ideas of the years as well. As of today, they are still just in Granby, but…

But they have expanded! Hugely! Bigly! They have added a full upstairs floor over the winter of 2017-18. This is excellent news for the business. After all,

We have a unique product and an almost cult-like enthusiastic customers that eagerly await the newest ice cream creations. At times customers wait in line before the shop opens so that they are sure to get a taste of a debut flavor.

Hey! I wrote my cult quip before I read this.

Anyway, yeah, Grass Roots is now WAY bigger than it was in 2014 which was bigger than it was in 2013 when it opened. This is a very good thing because, well, because of the cult thing again.

The expansion in 2018 also included a small restaurant. Seating increased from 10 to 50 and there was a second floor added. The creamery was moved up from the basement to the first floor, which made everything a million times easier for the employees – yes, by 2018, Grass Roots had to hire some employees. They had made and sold over 150 flavors at this point, and settled on having 36 available at any given time.

I want to make the point that they always have expected flavors as well; they’re not all just wacky for wacky’s sake.

It was around this time that when people would ask me what my favorite ice cream joints in Connecticut were, Grass Roots was in the conversation. It was also around this time that Grass Roots became Grassroots. (It was also around this time that my hikes became solo efforts. Sigh.)

2024

Wow. I’m so happy for the owners. They got through the pandemic and their promise to me all those years ago has come true, with Grassroots’ opening in the downtowns of Simsbury and New Milford. Both new locations are bright and cute and in my experience, the staffs have been trained well by the owners. Upon entering the Simsbury location one day, I was greeted with a very sunny hello. But it sounded genuine, not like “Welcome to Moe’s” or at a car rental place. They even state in their website’s About section that “Grassroots’s mission is to live up to our motto “Wicked Good” by offering outstanding service, excellent food and ice cream, and a welcoming, familial atmosphere.”

It’s kind of their thing I guess.

While I personally can’t stand Yelp, it’s nice that Grassroots was voted one of the “Top 100 Places to Eat” in the country in 2021.

Best known for our uniquely creative flavors like Goat Cheese Blackberry, Blood Orange Chocolate Chip, and Honey Lavender, we make all our ice cream at our Granby Creamery in small batches with only the freshest ingredients. We believe in old-fashioned hard work and even make most of our mix-ins – such as our jams, brownies, and cheesecake – from scratch.

Our street food, too, is scratch-made with the highest-quality ingredients. As we like to say, our food is more “fast-gourmet” than “fast-casual,” and the difference is in the taste.

Grassroots has been a family-owned, family-run business since its opening in the former Granby General Store in 2013, and, as such, family is at the heart of all we do. We strive to make all our customers feel at home as they celebrate moments big and small with us or stop by for a scoop to sweeten up a tough day. We believe that ice cream makes any occasion, from a once-in-a-lifetime wedding to a typical Tuesday, better!

I ordered “the smallest milkshake” they had, with Brownie mint chip ice cream. It was… too good. They thoughtfully serve their milkshakes with these massive straws with giant radii, so the brownie (or whatever) chunks can pass through. This thing was a meal.

All of the ice cream is made in Granby. I’ve not been to the New Milford location, but we can be assured it’s the same as Granby and Simsbury. Since I only write about homemade ice cream places, I’ve not had the “street food” either. But by all means, if you start a website writing about local street food joints, let me know how it is.

Grassroots Ice Cream
CTMQ’s Homemade Ice Cream Trail