Gifford's Ice Cream, Silver Spring Institution Reopened (in Name Only) in Several Area Locations - Closed in 2010

[CrescentFresh]

New shop now open near the corner of 11th and E, NW. (Interestingly, right near the new Ben and Jerry's tucked into that tourist service joint on the corner).

[Ilaine]

Rounding off our 2006 tour of area ice cream joints, finally made it to Gifford's in Bethesda (7237 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda, MD | 301-907-3436)

Verdict: after spending the last month or so trying ice cream parlors all over the area, we are getting jaded. I tried to look at the place with something approaching aesthetic distance (appreciating it just for itself) but impossible after a 25 mile trip over the Beltway and through MoCo at over $3 a gallon for gas.

I had coconut -- sweet cream base with shredded coconut. Pretty good.

Younger son had cookie dough -- he thought they made a mistake and gave him vanilla, but eventually found a couple of chunks of cookie dough in there.

Older son had butter pecan -- his comment, "good ice cream served by a pretty girl [the one with the piercings], what's for a man not to like?"

Spotlessly clean, check. Places to sit inside and out, check. Napkins and water, check. Clean bathrooms, check. Nearby parking, check. (Large paid municipal parking lot a block away, 75 cents an hour parking.) If metro accessibility is important to you, check. You could also bike, roller skate, or get there by wheelchair.

Would I do it again, drive 25 miles (50 round trip) just to go there? No.

(One very nice thing -- a 5 gallon spring water jug contraption outside connected to a dog water dish. So, dog friendly, check.)

[Scott Johnston]

Does Giffords still make the ice cream molds that I enjoyed too many years ago? Every Thanksgiving my grandmother in Chevy Chase would get a ice cream mold that was round with a turkey shape of peppermint ice cream in the middle. There were 8-10 slices each with frozen whipped cream and a cherry on the top. Christmas the turkey was replaced by a Santa.

[DCJono]

There was a very supportive article in the Post's Food section a few weeks ago:

"For the Scoop on Gifford's" by Walter Nicholls on washingtonpost.com

Scott, the very end of the article states that they are trying to bring the molds back.

[LittleWing]

On my lunch break from Cowgirl, I took one of our sandwiches over to Giffords, explained that I wanted to have ice cream but also wanted to eat my sandwich first, and they very kindly obliged without a second thought. After, I got a small scoop of coffee chip - instead of actual chocolate chips, it seemed like they smashed up chocolate-covered espresso beans and folded it in the coffee ice cream. Verdict: yum!

[dinwiddie]

We stopped in at Giffords after dinner a couple of weeks ago when we went to Bethesda for a movie. Verdict, good ice cream, great folks, but worth a special trip if you are not nearby, not really.

[Joe H]

There was a very supportive article in the Post's Food section a few weeks ago:
 

"For the Scoop on Gifford's" by Walter Nicholls on washingtonpost.com

Scott, the very end of the article states that they are trying to bring the molds back.

 
Regardless of what you read in the Post this is NOT the same Gifford's as that which closed in the early '80's. They bought the name out of bankruptcy-nothing else. The base is different, a number of the flavors are different. (i.e. oreo at the original Gifford's had many more crushed Oreo cookies in it; cookie dough was not a flavor, etc.) The man who made the ice cream for Gifford's in their Silver Spring plant for over ten years opened his own shop several weeks after the last Gifford's closed. But he didn't own the name, just the knowledge and recipe for their ice cream. He added some new flavors to suppliment the existing ones but also continued to make the exact same Swiss Chocolate, made sodas with a scoop of whipped cream and soda water-he just couldn't use their name.

He's still around: York Castle. The only one I've been to is the one in Montgomery Hills and the last time was two years ago. From the '50's to the early '80's I may have been Gifford's best customer! York Castle-unless it has changed in the last two years-has the original Gifford's ice cream.

But not the molds.

[ol_ironstomach]

York Castle-unless it has changed in the last two years-has the original Gifford's ice cream.

Wow, I never made the connection. York Castle's "exotic" flavors always distract me, especially their soursop ice cream. Also a handy place to load up on D&G Jamaican Ginger Beer in 2 liter bottles.

[MBK]

Pumpkin pie ice cream is back.

Joy. Rapture. Glee.

(Almost makes up for having to work late tonight. Almost.)

[smokey]

I went to the Giffords in Rockville Town Center recently. I've never been a huge fan of Giffords. I think they have a few good flavors and a bunch I think are totally <shrug>. I had their banana ice cream and REALLY liked it. It had a really good banana flavor. I've actually already been back to get some more. Mmmm, banana...

[Sthitch]

Nats are keeping the ice cream local.

[Joe Riley]

Nats are keeping the ice cream local.

Indeed. A nice development. Very glad to see that it isn't, say, Baskin-Robbins or another more generic chain.

I've only been to a handful of MLB ballparks, but when I go to a different city's ballpark, I want to try something that I can't get at home. Yes, if I go to Camden Yards, I'm going to order a crabcake sandwich or get Boog's Barbecue. When I went to Citizen's Bank Park in Philadelphia last summer, I got something local there (barbecue, I think) even though I wanted a Steak and Cheese sandwich but the line was phenomenally long, I'd have missed the first two innings had I tried to do so.

Pity that Gary Heurich shut down Foggy Bottom two years ago. I hope that Wild Goose or Dominion get decent representation there. Even Five Guys, they began here, didn't they? I'm still holding out hopes for Ben's Chili Bowl getting in.

All eyes will be on this stadium this season. Expectations will be high. I don't want the Nationals baseball experience to be substandard or, at worst, a joke compared to what is available in other MLB ballparks.

[An Briosca Mor]

I'm still holding out hopes for Ben's Chili Bowl getting in.

 
There was an article (or maybe it was a Marc Fisher column) in the Post a month or two ago about a place where they are making signs for Nationals Park. The Ben's Chili Bowl sign was one of the signs being made there. Sounds like a done deal to me.

Now, the Gifford's ice cream is nice, but it had better be served in a miniature helmet or there will be hell to pay among the fanship.

[Roger Troutman]

Pity that Gary Heurich shut down Foggy Bottom two years ago.

 
That was a real shame. The Foggy Bottom bar behind home plate was a real treat at RFK two seasons ago.

[Lydia R]

Oh well, another chapter in the Gifford's saga. Interestingly, this article by Michael S. Rosenwald made the front page of today's Washington Post.

A formal allegation of the substitution - along with a photo of Hood ice cream tubs in a Gifford's store - is included in a breach of contract lawsuit Lieberman's ownership group filed this summer against Luke Cooper, the 34-year-old Baltimore investor who last winter took control of all four Gifford's shops from Rockville to downtown Washington. In recent days, all of the Gifford's stores have closed, marking what many fear is the end of the storied chain.

Even competitors are stunned. "Gifford's is the name you could never really compete with around here," said Susan Soorenko, owner of Moorenko's Ice Cream Cafe in Silver Spring. "It's what everybody around here grew up with. It's amazing to see what's happening now."

[Night Owl]

Oh well, another chapter in the Gifford's saga. Interestingly, this article by Michael S. Rosenwald made the front page of today's Washington Post.

For those of us who grew up eating Gifford's ice cream when the family still ran the shops, this (from the Wash Post article) is criminal and just says it all:

Asked why he served Hood ice cream, Cooper replied, "We never sold any ice cream in our shops that wasn't super premium ice cream."

Sad to see Gifford's disappear... again.

[Scott Johnston]

A Johnston Family tradition was the ice cream logs from Giffords that had peppermint ice cream in the middle (in a turkey or santa shape) with frozen whipped cream and a cherry on op sliced in one inch slices. These have not been available for 20 years despite rumors hat they may bring them back some time

For those of us who grew up eating Gifford's ice cream when the family still ran the shops, this (from the Wash Post article) is criminal and just says it all:

Asked why he served Hood ice cream, Cooper replied, "We never sold any ice cream in our shops that wasn't super premium ice cream."

Sad to see Gifford's disappear... again.

[Night Owl]

A Johnston Family tradition was the ice cream logs from Giffords that had peppermint ice cream in the middle (in a turkey or santa shape) with frozen whipped cream and a cherry on op sliced in one inch slices. These have not been available for 20 years despite rumors hat they may bring them back some time

 
We loved those, too! And I still long for Gifford's mint chocolate chip ice cream from those days... ((sigh))

[DanielK]

I still long for Gifford's mint chocolate chip ice cream from those days... ((sigh))

 
You can still get it here.

[Night Owl]

You can still get it here.

DanielK, you just made my day. Gotta get there -- thank so much...

[Chocolatechipkt]

It is sad. We'd noticed the change in quality -- esp. in the chip-based flavors. Can't wait to check out York. Thanks from me too, DanielK!

[smokey]

Yeah, the giffords at RTC had clearly gone SIGNIFICANTLY downhill since it opened. Although i liked the banana ice cream I bought there when it first opened (see upthread), I hadn't gotten any ice cream that I liked there in since that first summer. Not only was the ice cream bluh (flavorless), but the store was ALWAYS filthy and understaffed. I never saw anybody who appeared to be a manager. In the past 6 months I was like am ambulance chaser driving by it to see whether it had closed yet. It was so obvious it was going to close that one time I simply went in and asked them when they were. They claimed that they weren't. It was the middle of summer, the air conditioning wasn't on and they had about 5 flavors of ice cream. Right, you aren't about to go out of business.

[tbantug]

It's a shame that Gifford's had to close the way they did, by leaving a bad taste in their customers' mouths (literally). It probably would've been better for them to quietly disappear, than to go through the summer half-a$$ed, with bad service, no flavors, and unkempt stores. Not to mention how appalling it is to charge super premium prices for mass market ice cream. Talk about betraying the public trust.

But really, I'm torn between feeling a little sympathy for them and having a "you made your bed now lie in it" attitude. After all, as stated in the Post article, they knew that the company they sold their retail stores to had a history of mismanaging them. I Googled "Deal Metrics" and found a wealth of information on them, mostly articles about how they mismanaged and closed long standing Brigham's restaurants after they took over. DM stopped paying rent, stopped paying employees health insurance, started paying employees in cash, started paying vendors from the register... pretty sad, and information that's not hard to find. Seems like Gifford's did zero due diligence when they were approached by DM. Also in the article it stated that no money changed hands up front in the deal? I'm no math major, but that doesn't sound right, either.

For a while there, Gifford's seemed like it could do no wrong. The Bethesda store was in a great location. The wholesale business was growing, and I even saw pints in Harris Teeter. They opened more storefronts in Chevy Chase and downtown. They even sold ice cream at Nationals Park! That's a pretty good run! Too bad it had to end a little early.

RIP Gifford's

PS- I encourage everyone to keep licking locally. Search for homegrown, independent ice cream shops! Great ones are out there!

[hm212]

For a while there, Gifford's seemed like it could do no wrong. The Bethesda store was in a great location. The wholesale business was growing, and I even saw pints in Harris Teeter.

 
I was in Harris Teeter tonight and just an empty space where there was supposed to be Giffords pints. Looks like the wholesale business is not looking good either.

[smokey]

PS- I encourage everyone to keep licking locally. Search for homegrown, independent ice cream shops! Great ones are out there!

 
Yay, York Tropical Castle!

[porcupine]

PS- I encourage everyone to keep licking locally. Search for homegrown, independent ice cream shops! Great ones are out there!

 
Really? Where?

[dcs]

Really? Where?

 
Lazy Sundae?

[hillvalley]

Really? Where?

 
Max's Ice Cream in Georgetown across from the Whole Foods.

[saf]

Max's Ice Cream

 
So seconded, although I would say Glover Park rather than Georgetown.

[Chocolatechipkt]

I drove by where Gifford's used to be in Friendship Heights yesterday and saw everything looking like normal. Has this location reopened?

[Chocolatechipkt]

Just answered my question:

"Free Gifford's Ice Cream! The Real Thing, Not Some Imposter" by Chris Schott on washingtoncitypaper.com

[Joe H]

Just answered my question:

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/youngandhungry/2011/04/27/free-giffords-ice-cream-the-real-thing-not-some-imposter/

"John Nash Gifford, the founder, spent years perfecting his recipes to ensure the highest quality and unique flavors, and Gifford's is proud to carry on this tradition for new generations."

"carrying on the tradition" is not serving the same ice cream. There is not a single Gifford's location since the early 1980's that has served the original Gifford's ice cream. I've posted this for ten + years on message boards. York Castle, when it first opened, WAS the original Gifford's ice cream. (He made it! York Castle's original owner was the man who ran the Gifford's ice cream factory in Silver Spring and opened his "new" store in Montgomery Hills several months after Gifford's closed.)

But, I'll take this another step: Shenandoah Dairies made the "base" for Gifford's. This started, I believe, in the late '70's. Prior to this Gifford's ice cream was made in Silver Spring totally from scratch. An argument could be made that the Gifford's ice cream pre Shenandoah Dairy was superior to the ice cream made with Shenandoah's base.

I realize that for someone reading this it sounds really trivial but I was probably Gifford's best customer from the early '60's until their closing. I still obsessively diet today because of the weight that I gained growing up eating their ice cream. Two days a week? Three days a week? Every week, every season, snow, wind, rain-I ate loyally, dutifully-I didn't/couldn't stop. I ate a lot of Gifford's ice cream for a long time. Their ice cream changed in the '70's when Shenandoah starting making their "base." After they closed, the "new" Gifford's didn't approach what was made with the Shenandoah base. Now, we are talking about something several generations removed from the true original.

In truth there is almost nowhere that makes ice cream similar to what was available in the '50's and '60's. Does anyone reading this remember the University Pastry Shop (on Wisconsin Ave.) or the Calvert Pastry shop? Avignon Freres at 18th and Columbia? The ORIGINAL Wagshal's ice cream from the '60's? (NOT, repeat NOT what they sell today.) There was an ice cream standard then that today doesn't even approach the best of 50 years ago. Of course you can still make this at home: with rock salt and ice and pasteurized heavy cream and real vanilla. If you happen to make chocolate from scratch (which Gifford's did then) you could make some serious chocolate ice cream.

Anyway, I'm tired of hearing about Gifford's. It's not the same. No matter who makes it. Best ice cream you can find today in the D. C. area is from Two Amy's. Kinkead's does a really good job, too.

and Max's was once known as Bob's...

[DonRocks]

"John Nash Gifford, the founder, spent years perfecting his recipes to ensure the highest quality and unique flavors, and Gifford's is proud to carry on this tradition for new generations."

...

Anyway, I'm tired of hearing about Gifford's. It's not the same. No matter who makes it.

Yeah, I have to wonder if they used HFCS in 1938, and if they use cane sugar today. Does anyone know?

[ol_ironstomach]

The tale of the Gifford's legacy takes another bizarre turn, with a *different* chocolatier - Kron Chocolatier, in Mazza Galerie - picking up from Dolly Hunt, the one-time owner of the business and recipient of the supposedly falsified Gifford's recipe.  It will not be called Gifford's, as those rights were sold to "Gifford's Famouse Ice Cream (of Maine)" in 2010.  Meanwhile, Andrew Gifford re-emerges with a family memoir in the works, tentatively set for publication in February 2017, and in which he promises to publish the recipe for the ice cream base as it was from the 1950s-1980s.  The contents of the index cards from the vault will be published on an associated website.

Read the Bethesda Magazine article below, but the real action is in the comments section.

"Giffords Ice Cream to Make Local Comeback under New Name" by Andrew Metcalf on bethesdamagazine.com

[DanielK]

Andrew also moderates a Facebook group on the story here.

[DonRocks]

Could someone write a bullet-point timeline of Giffords' history from 1938 forward? I remember when they reopened in Bethesda (it absolutely wasn't the same), and I'm very hazy on what happened since then.

Every Saturday, 9AM duckpin bowling at White Oak Lanes, then my dad would pick us up, take us to Bonanza Coins (believe it or not, I've been to Al Bonan's house before), then Giffords, where he would positively *down* a chocolate-mint ice-cream soda in what seemed to me, at the time, as the biggest glass in the world.

I *think* I used to get the Swiss Sundae - which was served in some metallic vessel, or maybe it was the warm Swiss sauce that was served in a tin pitcher - but my memory is cloudy about whether that was Gifford's or Wiley's. Does anyone remember the "Lincoln Memorial" at Wiley's? To a little kid, their special-sundae menu was positively *enthralling*.

[DanielK]

Don, I would reach out to Andrew on Facebook. If he's writing a book about it...

[Joe H]

Could someone write a bullet-point timeline of Giffords' history from 1938 forward? I remember when they reopened in Bethesda (it absolutely wasn't the same), and I'm very hazy on what happened since then.

Every Saturday, 9AM duckpin bowling at White Oak Lanes, then my dad would pick us up, take us to Bonanza Coins (believe it or not, I've been to Al Bonan's house before), then Giffords, where he would positively *down* a chocolate-mint ice-cream soda in what seemed to me, at the time, as the biggest glass in the world.

I *think* I used to get the Swiss Sundae - which was served in some metallic vessel, or maybe it was the warm Swiss sauce that was served in a tin pitcher - but my memory is cloudy about whether that was Gifford's or Wiley's. Does anyone remember the "Lincoln Memorial" at Wiley's? To a little kid, their special-sundae menu was positively *enthralling*.

Mar, 2005 - "Silver Spring: Then & Again" by Jerry A. McCoy on silverspringhistory.homestead.com

Lincoln Memorial was $30 in the early '60's.  It must be noted that York Castle opened in Montgomery Hills only several months after Gifford's closed their SS store.  York Castle's owner was the same man who made the ice cream at Gifford's and he used the same base, made the same Swiss sundae, sodas the same way, etc.  This continued at least into the early '90's because we would drive from Reston to Montgomery Hills for Gifford's ice cream at York Castle.  We also stopped at the Bethesda Gifford's on Bethesda avenue once but drove past it-the ice cream was different.  They had only bought the name.

University Pastry Shop on Wisconsin had outstanding ice cream as did the Calvert Pastry shop,  Heller's, Avignon Freres and Wagshal's.

[DonRocks]

Mar, 2005 - "Silver Spring: Then & Again" by Jerry A. McCoy on silverspringhistory.homestead.com

Lincoln Memorial was $30 in the early '60's.  It must be noted that York Castle opened in Montgomery Hills only several months after Gifford's closed their SS store.  York Castle's owner was the same man who made the ice cream at Gifford's and he used the same base, made the same Swiss sundae, sodas the same way, etc.  This continued at least into the early '90's because we would drive from Reston to Montgomery Hills for Gifford's ice cream at York Castle.  We also stopped at the Bethesda Gifford's on Bethesda avenue once but drove past it-the ice cream was different.  They had only bought the name.

University Pastry Shop on Wisconsin had outstanding ice cream as did the Calvert Pastry shop,  Heller's, Avignon Freres and Wagshal's.

I *knew* you'd remember - I vaguely recall it being $29.95 for (I believe) 65 scoops of ice cream, or maybe it was more than that - this would have been in the late 1960s; I never actually saw one - I just remember it on the menu, staring at it in awe.

Now my challenge is: do you remember the Lang Lin right next door, Kiddyland, IHOP, and McDonald's Hamburger College? I never *did* go on the sideways roller coaster at Kiddyland - I couldn't muster the courage.

This photo might interest you. Oh, and it was the *Hot Butterscotch Sundae* that had the hot sauce in the tin pouring vessel; not the Swiss Sundae - man that thing was a treat to me.

[Joe H]

I *knew* you'd remember - I vaguely recall it being $29.95 for (I believe) 65 scoops of ice cream, or maybe it was more than that - this would have been in the late 1960s; I never actually saw one - I just remember it on the menu, staring at it in awe.

Now my challenge is: do you remember the Lang Lin right next door, Kiddyland, IHOP, and McDonald's Hamburger College? I never *did* go on the sideways roller coaster at Kiddyland - I couldn't muster the courage.

This photo might interest you. Oh, and it was the *Hot Butterscotch Sundae* that had the hot sauce in the tin pouring vessel; not the Swiss Sundae - man that thing was a treat to me.

Kiddieland was at New Hampshire and East West close to where the Mighty Mo once stood.

I don't remember the Lang Lin but I do remember Hamburger College, just can't place it's exact location. (A couple of doors down from Weile's?)  I remember when the Adelphi McDonald's opened and the lines literally started at the base of the golden arches.  Most reading this have no idea how good McDonald's once was, say pre 1967 when they still used fresh potatoes for their fries (in 70% animal fat) and fresh meat.  Probably why I like In-n-Out so much:  the menu is the same as 60 years ago and the food is the same.

I don't remember the "bicentennial specials" at Gifford's  Big Top was their biggest sundae but Gifford's was also for a Swiss sundae or the banana split of my dreams.  I also remember bowls of real whipped cream which was liberally spooned.  Chopped nuts, too, on the Swiss sundae.

To this day I believe that Gifford's Swiss sundae is the single best sundae of any kind I have ever had anywhere.

Don, it's not just nostalgia but a Mighty Mo, a Swiss sundae, Ledo's pizza in Adelphi (even Pop's on Henderson) there are things from our childhood that were legitimately good.

[ElGuapo]

The Gifford's heir is giving a talk tomorrow at the Silver Spring Library:

https://www.sourceofthespring.com/giffords-heir-talk-ice-cream-empire/