South Pier Creamery & Market
407 Phoenix StreetWhat’s a trip to South Haven without ice cream?
We had to take advantage of the warm early spring weather a few weeks ago. We grabbed dinner at The Lodge then headed to South Beach to play at the playground and dip our toes in the water.
We had promised the kids ice cream if they ate their dinner. L cleaned her plate. B….had enough to eat and we all wanted ice cream so we gave in.
We could have went to Sherman’s….like is the tradition in South Haven….but we ended up going just up the hill from South Beach to downtown South Haven. There’s a new little ice cream shop right in the main business district.
South Pier Creamery & Market is fairly new to downtown South Haven. The small restaurant is on Phoenix Street just to the east of Kalamazoo Street. The business is tucked in between Harbor Toy Company and Shooting Star Antique Store. Up until fairly recently, this business was Captain Nemo’s. The new restaurant is a little more simpler of a concept focusing more on the ice cream side of things while still offering a little bit of food.
The restaurant has undergone quite a bit of renovation since it’s Captain Nemo days. I think I was only in that iteration once and didn’t stick around because the line was too long (hence, no blog post about it) but I remember it being more of a restaurant set up with booths. The ice cream was a counter along one wall. That part is still true. The ice cream cooler is along one of the side walls but the restaurant is opened up more now. There are some tables but most of the restaurant is just a place to queue up waiting for your turn at the ice cream counter.
This place was really busy for a Saturday night in April. The line was out the door and wrapped around the inside and it didn’t move very quickly. There were two people scooping ice cream. I’m guessing they got caught a little bit by surprise. It’s not busy season yet and how often is it this nice in April. They were both working their tails off but it did take quite a while to get ice cream.
South Pier is a pretty typical scoop place. They have a few of the easy ice cream creations like shakes, sundaes and turtles, but for the most part, you’re here to get a scoop….or three…of ice cream.
There are quite a bit of flavors to choose from. They’re not exclusively one company of ice cream. There are selections from Sherman’s, Ashby’s, Moo-ville, and Guernsey’s….all Michigan ice creams. You can mix and match whatever flavors float your boat.
They also have “Market” in their name and you can buy a few Michigan made pantry staples too. There’s a large display of maple syrup from nearby Ridley Family Sugar Farm.
When it was our turn to order, we all went with single cups of ice cream….which is actually two scoops. Except for me, I somehow ordered the baby cup which is only one scoop.
My pick was one of the Moo-ville specials. It’s called Sea Monster. The ice cream is sea salt caramel and it’s mixed with cookie dough and Oreo’s. So much sweetness just in the ice cream itself and a little bit of crunch from the cookie bits. Delicious and sad I didn’t order more.
J’s picks were the Sorta Sweet Beth Dutton (Caramel Whiskey Bourbon ice cream with a salted toffee swirl and toffee pieces) and the Sea Monster.
L is always the odd man out and goes for the waffle cone. She picked the Dragon Fruit Swirl, which has mango fat free sherbet artificial flavor added…because she loeves anything mango flavored…and the Honey Lavender which is a swirl of lavendar and honey ice cream.
B went for his old favorites. Superman and Blue Moon. Let me tell you…there is nothing more frustrating to watch than B eating ice cream. He’s so slow and gets ice cream All. Over. Himself. The boy was head to toe blue after eating about half of the cup. Even worse, South Pier doesn’t have a public restroom to get him cleaned up afterwards. We had to walk a couple blocks to the public restrooms on Kalamazoo Street…and fortunately, they were open so I could get the blue dye off of his hands, face, and anywhere else he decided to rub the ice cream in. I love the fact that ice cream places give such big scoops but man, I wish they’d go smaller for kids like B. He wanted both flavors so we couldn’t do a smaller cup but he never eats it all and ends up wearing most of it.
Our bill, with tip, was right around $25.
South Pier Market & Creamery is going to be really busy once the tourist season starts. They have a great location just up the hill from South Beach. It’s easy to walk to and they have such a huge selection of delicious ice cream.
SW Michigan Dining 