Herrell’s Ice Cream is a chain of ice cream stores located in Massachusetts and New York, featuring over 400 homemade flavors.
Steve’s Ice Cream was founded in 1973 in Somerville, Massachusetts by Steve Herrell. By mechanically altering a small batch commercial freezer, Herrell produced an extraordinarily rich, creamy, low-air ice cream. Herrell was introduced to the Heath candy bar by a friend in the late 1960s and felt that it would make an excellent addition to ice cream. When he opened his first store, instead of having pre-mixed flavors like chocolate chip, he had his staff mix freshly made ice cream with candy or other confections based upon customer requests. These candy additions later became known as smoosh-ins. The custom-blended flavors proved to be highly desired by customers, and Herrell sold out of ice cream on his first day open. The store became very popular in a short time. Herrell sold his company to Joe Crugnale, the future founder of the Bertucci’s restaurant chain, in 1977.
After selling Steve’s Ice Cream, Herrell moved to Northampton, Massachusetts. The sale agreement included a three-year non-compete clause. After this expired in 1980, he opened Herrell’s Ice Cream, bringing with him all of the original recipes and techniques he used at Steve’s.
