ORANGE — A cup of homemade ice cream is already appearing in the parking lot at 88 Marsh Hill Road. Frisbie’s Dairy Barn, the Connecticut company known for handcrafted, small-batch, super-premium ice cream, is serving from a new indoor counter inside Noble Gas Plaza, and it will celebrate the official grand opening of its seventh location — its first in New Haven County — on Thursday, Nov. 19. Co-owner Kendra Walker, who is also the company’s director of operations, said a small ribbon-cutting celebration is set for 11 a.m. that day.
The counter sits next to Bol Place and Mini Sturbridge Coffeehouse, keeping what the company calls a small-business feel under one roof. Regular hours will be daily from noon to 10 p.m., according to the announcement. Frisbie’s has been in a soft opening in Orange, and its website and Instagram already list the shop as open, thanking the neighbors who have stopped in early.
“We’re excited to bring Frisbie’s Dairy Barn to Orange and expand into New Haven County for the first time,” said Paul Parks III, owner of Frisbie’s Dairy Barn. “We are most excited to be bringing our ice cream making classes to the area. Friends and family can book a class to learn how to make ice cream and create their own unique flavor.”
Mike, writing on Google after going to the Orange shop for the soft opening, said they have “some delicious ice cream.” He ordered a brownie sundae; his wife got a waffle cone. “Both were delicious.”
Frisbie’s first opened in New Britain in 2015, under the big painted sign that still sits on the original white porch. In 2019, Paul Parks Jr. and his son, Paul Parks III, purchased the business. They have grown it alongside Kendra Walker and Victoria Parks. Walker, in her note to Milford Voice, signed as co-owner and director of operations. The company’s own story page still describes Frisbie’s the way they want it to feel: a place for family, friends and communities to gather over homemade ice cream.
They are not a franchise. Every shop, the company says, is family-owned and locally run, and the ice cream is made in-house, in small batches, using a premium dairy mix. The New Britain store remains the original, and it is home to the 24-hour National Ice Cream Day celebration, when the shop stays open from midnight to 11:59 p.m. on the third Sunday of July, scooping custom flavors and signature sundaes all day long. “From our friendly, smiling staff to our loyal Frisbie’s fans, we are grateful to serve our ever growing communities,” the company writes.
Today Frisbie’s serves communities in Connecticut and Massachusetts with a mix of year-round scoop shops and seasonal walk-up stands, totaling seven locations. Next on the roadmap, the announcement said, is Hamden.
What to order
Flavors change by shop and by season, so the board at the Orange counter is the one to trust on any given day. Many of the signature scoops are named for Connecticut towns. These are the treats the company and its regulars keep coming back to.
Start with Blue Devil Cookie Monster, the bright blue vanilla ice cream packed with Oreos and chocolate chip cookies. The company’s flavor list marks it as a fan favorite, and it is the scoop people hold up in a waffle cone when they want the house classic.
Ask for a homemade hot fudge sundae. The company’s story page points to homemade hot fudge as one of the small things that make a visit special, and a New Britain chalkboard in a company photo lists standard and signature sundaes, along with a brownie sundae, milkshakes and pints to take home. A pup cup is on that board too.
Megan, writing on Google about the original New Britain store, called the chocolate peanut butter and salted caramel “an awesome pairing” and said the waffle cone “was super sturdy and crisp to the last bite.” Karli, also reviewing New Britain on Google, wrote that Mikey’s Mint Chocolate Chunk tasted like “actual mint taste from mint leaves,” and named Cake Batterson Park and Stanley Park Strawberry among her favorites.
At the West Hartford shop in Blue Back Square, Kim told Google the ice cream was “small batch and delicious.” She loved that the flavors are named after Connecticut landmarks, ordered the black raspberry, and said her kids “loved” the cake batter and blue cookie dough. “The service was good.” In Windsor, Piu got the coconut almond and black raspberry and called both “very nice.” Margaret, on her third visit to that Day Hill Road walk-up, listed red raspberry chocolate, moose tracks, peanut butter and strawberry, and wrote, “The ice cream is friggin amazing.” Kristen, stopping at the East Lyme window on the way home, got cookies and cream in a waffle cone with rainbow sprinkles; her friend got cookie butter. “It was delicious,” she wrote. “Waffle cone was thick and fresh.”
Frisbie’s also makes ice cream cakes for birthdays and celebrations, and it sells take-home pints. Sangeetha, reviewing the New Britain shop on Google, said her family bought a strawberry ice cream cake and called it “the most delicious ice cream I have ever tasted.”
For a seasonal scoop this time of year, the company’s flavor list includes Rodger’s Apple Cider Donut, a cake-batter ice cream flavored with local apple cider and chunks of apple cider donuts, along with other fall specials such as Mint Oreo Fudge Swirl and pumpkin.
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Classes, birthdays and the people behind the counter
The classes Parks is eager to bring to New Haven County are already a draw at the older shops. On the company’s site, the Ice Cream Making Experience is a 90-minute, hands-on class in which guests create their own flavor, build a sundae and pick up a full gallon of their creation the next day. Those classes are currently hosted in New Britain and North Attleboro, and the site now lists a class presale for Orange.
Scott, who took the class at the New Britain shop with his family, said instructor Mia “did an outstanding job,” was “incredibly knowledgeable,” and made the session “fun, engaging, and easy to follow.” Clare brought her son’s 10th birthday party there and wrote that the kids “had an absolute blast making ice cream.” She said the staff was “so welcoming and accommodating,” including for a guest who needed wheelchair access, and gave a “huge shout-out” to Mia, who “answered every single one” of the kids’ questions “with patience and kindness.” Catherine, writing on Google after taking the class a second time in New Britain, called it “so much fun” and “a unique experience right here in our Connecticut backyard.”
Mallory went to the New Britain shop for the first time on National Ice Cream Day and said it “did not disappoint.” The blueberry pie and banana pudding “were both amazing,” she wrote, “and the pup cup was a hit too.”
The motto over the new Orange counter is the same one Frisbie’s has carried since the beginning: Eat Ice Cream. Be Happy. The grand opening is Thursday, Nov. 19, at 88 Marsh Hill Road in Orange, with the ribbon-cutting at 11 a.m. For flavors, hours and class details, the company points visitors to frisbiesdairybarn.com.
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