Toby's Homemade Ice Cream & Coffee, Owners Monina and Toby "Rub" Bantug in the old Scoop Beauregard's Space in Westover Village

[DonRocks]

The Bantugs purchased Scoop Beauregard's, and reopened it as Toby's on March 1st. While the shop has a slightly more organized feel, it's still mostly the same product as before: ice cream, and M. E. Swing's coffee. Scoop's had it own charms, but always felt a little amateurish to me; my instinct tells me that Toby (with whom I talked this morning) has an updated outlook on running the business. Their website is here. Congratulations to both of you!

Cheers,
Rocks

ETA - Ha! I had completely forgotten Toby was a member here until just now, when I went into the Scoop Beauregard's thread.

P.S. Mabuhay!

[goodeats]

On Friday afternoon, around 1-ish, I had the delightful experience of walking into an air of wonderful, buttery goodness that would become waffle cones that Toby was making by hand. Although I truly wished I was in a buttery, waffle cone-goodness mood, my craving leaned toward a milkshake. After patiently waiting on me, Toby made a fantastic Hot Cocoa and Marshmellow milkshake that satisfied the stomach and palate.

Thanks Toby!!

[DonRocks]

On 4/13/2014 at 3:25 PM, DonRocks said:

That 7-11 had a *lot* of parking - I wonder if The Italian Store worked a deal with the landlord to secure all places for themselves. I hope this will help places like Toby's (don't forget, Toby Bantug is a member here who we should be supporting).

Toby, do you have any thoughts about this? The little shopping center at the northern tip of Sycamore Street put in a Zinga Yogurt and business at Backyard Barbecue went up substantially.

[tbantug]

I think the Italian Store will be great for Westover! It will bring traffic (in more ways than one), and yes, I think parking will be more difficult. As far as I know, Italian Store owns that property and parking lot, and I think they'll be adding outdoor seating. I'm not sure if the county regulates the number of parking spaces for each business, but I imagine they do. I've talked to quite a few of my customers about it and we're all excited for them to open up (which seems to be delayed now).

[DonRocks]

On 4/28/2014 at 5:25 PM, tbantug said:

I think the Italian Store will be great for Westover! It will bring traffic (in more ways than one), and yes, I think parking will be more difficult. As far as I know, Italian Store owns that property and parking lot, and I think they'll be adding outdoor seating. I'm not sure if the county regulates the number of parking spaces for each business, but I imagine they do. I've talked to quite a few of my customers about it and we're all excited for them to open up (which seems to be delayed now).

I think your business, Toby, will double because of this move, and I think The Italian Store couldn't be luckier to have a great person like you as their business neighbor. There could be a mutually beneficial, symbiotic relationship for all involved, but you should take the initiative.. The Italian Store may not know you yet; they will soon enough - good luck to you both, and I think The Italian Store would be wise to allow you have all the ice cream and most of the drip coffee business in the shopping center instead of trying to throw elbows (I'd feel differently about Spout Run - they can elbow Starbucks all they want). Also, cut a deal with Illy to get an espresso Machine and use exclusively Illy coffee, and cut a deal with The Italian Store to set up morning shop for drip coffee in their parking lot so they don't even have to come in and open until lunchtime (you can do both of these simultaneously). The morning ice-cream business must be pretty weak anyhow, but you could have pints available for people to take to their work kitchens. The parking-lot aspect could be important because people don't want to get out of their cars in the mornings - be proactive on initiating this move (they are, after all, the 800-pound gorilla).

Then, try to get your ice creams sold in The Italian Store - this would be a wonderful example of one local business supporting another. 

Advice: begin emphasizing made-on-premises ice creams like you used to: they *were* better, I promise you, they were. and I'm certain that you know this. And make a house made spumoni. The Italian Store will never have ice cream as good as yours - they're just too high-volume. Have them contact me about this if they have any doubts.

My only regret is that Arax Cafe won't be around to share in this major uplift as well - I sill reel from their closure.

[Kibbee Nayee]

Hear hear on Illy, which is like finest ambrosia when compared to Starbucks' toilet water!

On 4/30/2014 at 1:29 AM, DonRocks said:

Also, cut a deal with Illy to get an espresso Machine and use exclusively Illy coffee, and cut a deal with The Italian Store to set up morning shop for drip coffee in their parking lot so they don't even have to come in and open until lunchtime

My only regret is that Arax Cafe won't be around to share in this major uplift as well - I sill reel from their closure.

I also miss Arax....but the original Lebanese Taverna is right there, and has been since 1979. It's the flagship of the Lebanese Taverna enterprise, and still serves out the finest of the LT's fare. Such a shame when the WaPo's weekly magazine did it's new feature of breaking down a neighborhood this past week on Westover, and neglected the venerable Lebanese Taverna....

[rbh]

Love this place.  Most of their ice cream comes from Great Falls Ice Cream.  Apparently they make some small batches in-house, but as Don mentioned upthread, it's not always clear which those are.

[DonRocks]

On 10/8/2019 at 6:25 PM, Ferris Bueller said:

Great Falls Creamery has been around for some time and according to their website:

Our ice cream starts with all-natural ingredients, and cream from the Maryland Milk Cooperative. It’s made with cane sugar and no artificial flavors or stabilizers.

They also reference they serve ~100 restaurants in the DC/NoVa/MD area.

There's a reason I've always had Toby's Homemade Ice Cream rated in Italic

Toby himself is a member here - darn it, I wish places like this would get more publicity.

[captcourt]

I'm going to revive this thread by putting in a plug for Toby's Black Raspberry Chip ice cream.  Huge winner.  Hmmm, maybe I'll go scoop myself a bowl for lunch...