Frisbie’s Dairy Barn: A Decade of Community Scoops | Gabriella Paige

Beneath blankets on her brown, L-shaped couch, Paige DeNardo and her boyfriend, Josh Hurley, reflect on their last two hours as they dig spoonfuls of ice cream from their blue sundae cups. DeNardo’s mother gifted them tickets to an ice cream-making class at Frisbie’s Dairy Barn for Christmas. The chilly evening began as the couple donned hairnets and gloves, joined by four other amateur ice cream makers.

“I feel like it was a different scene,” DeNardo says, in between bites of her black raspberry sundae. “I have been to Frisbie’s before, I’ve never just walked behind the counter, so it’s different seeing the behind-the-scenes.” 

Hurley holds his moose tracks in one hand, a spoon in the other. “You sit there mixing and get more of a real sense of how much effort goes into making ice cream.” 

Since winter is their least busy season, Frisbie’s hosts classes at their New Britain and North Attleboro locations seasonally from September to March. Participants take home a gallon of their own ice cream, a sundae, and 10% discount on any in-store purchase. 

“They had a table with the tubs and materials set out to make the vanilla-based ice cream,” DeNardo says, pausing between bites. “They had butterfat, and they mixed it with vanilla extract. They put that in the machine, and that had to sit for twenty minutes, and then we picked out our toppings.” 

Stir, scrape, repeat. Ice cream making was harder than the couple expected, but they got to enjoy the sweetness of their labor later.

“Eat Ice Cream. Be Happy”

A day before the class, co-owner Paul Parks III leaned back in his grey knit button-up jacket layered over his salmon Frisbie’s Dairy Barn t-shirt. He sat at a silver round table, watching the snow fall through the wall of windows facing Farmington Avenue. Children’s drawings and black-and-white photographs line the walls across from the store’s Annual Events banner and hand-drawn menu. On a sign above it is their motto, “Eat Ice Cream. Be Happy.”

Originally from Cumberland, Rhode Island, Parks moved to Connecticut six years ago to run Frisbie’s Dairy Barn. “I always say about ice cream: it’s not complicated, but it’s not easy.” Parks balanced his two hands out in front of him like a scale, “There are some challenges to it, but it’s very simple as long as they have the right attitude.”

Ice cream has a long history in New Britain. In 1945, the Frisbie’s location was Guida’s Milk Bar, which was known for its signature ice cream confections. When the beloved creamery closed in 2001, former New Britain mayor Erin Stewart proposed building a new ice cream shop for the community. Frisbie and partners opened Frisbie’s Dairy Barn in 2015, where he learned to make homemade ice cream and built a loyal customer base.

In 2019, Frisbie reached out to his alma mater, Nichols College in Dudley, Massachusetts, offering two seniors the opportunity to manage his dairy barn while he focused on his other business ventures. Paul Parks and his co-intern jumped at the opportunity. “We redid everything,” Parks said. “We rebranded. We did the marketing. We redid all of our flavors. We hired all the staff, and we called it our grand reopening.”

Parks laughed at how fast everything changed. “In 2020, Mike and I got reconnected. I was trying to buy some used equipment from him, and he said, ‘Yeah, maybe I’ll sell you the equipment, but I’d really like to see you buy the business.’ So, that’s how that happened.”

Parks partnered with his father to buy the business and brought in two additional business partners: his twin sister, Victoria Parks, and lifelong friend Kendra Walker. 

The partners continued to expand their ice cream business with locations in Windsor and North Attleboro, Massachusetts, and this month, two new locations will open in West Hartford and Sturbridge, Massachusetts. Paul said the “goal was to enter new communities and be a center point in the same way we are here.”

“We’re very clear on what’s important to us . . . the service, the product, the community.”

Before expanding, all the ice cream was made in New Britain and shipped to other shops and their local partner, Blue Heron Creamery. “We’re very clear on what’s important to us.”  Parks counted each point on his fingers: “the service, the product, the community. We’re just doing whatever we can to stay [true] to those.”  

But adding locations means expanding the ice cream production without losing the homemade charm that defines them. Staff in North Attleboro and Windsor have been trained in the art of ice cream making, ensuring quality and freshness in every batch.

Parks’ love for ice cream, community, and connection is visible through Frisbie’s unique flavor names and annual events. Their hand-drawn flavor board features thirty-seven handmade flavors, from Southington Salted Caramel to Blue Devil Cookie Monster. “Mike’s original plan when he started here was to try to keep it local,” Parks said, “So people who come in, especially from Connecticut, can really appreciate it, ‘Oh, that’s cool. I’m from Plainville, and you’ve got Plainville Peanut Butter.’”

Ice cream is supposedly only a summer treat. However, Frisbie’s membership with the North American Ice Cream Association and promotional ideas from shops across the country, like Cinco de Mayo, Stuff your Stanley, and National Ice Cream Day, help bring customers through the door year-round.

Many creameries offer ice cream classes to fill the slow months. “The staff gets to continue working, and we still get to stay open and scoop ice cream, even though not as many people are coming in. But the visibility has been great too.” Parks taught the classes himself last season and remembers families, couples, and friends traveling from surrounding states to create their own personal recipe. Yet it’s the 24-hour ice cream day that has become Frisbie’s claim to fame.

“That’s the one thing we came up with.” Every year on the third Sunday of July, Frisbie’s celebrates National Ice Cream Day by staying open for 24 hours. They open at midnight and already have a line wrapped around the building. 

“Kids in pajamas and families, it’s fun.” His smile radiated the thrill of being there. “It’s busy for two hours, then mostly dead. You get some health care workers, you get some drunk college kids. In the morning, it gets a little busy. Then around noon, it’s crazy busy until midnight.” 

When he first suggested the idea, Parks was worried the staff wouldn’t want to work overnight.

“They were like, ‘Oh yeah, we’re gonna do this,’” His laugh and shrug resembled equal parts of his faith and luck. “They actually fight over that overnight shift because it’s slow and it’s fun, and they make TikToks. It’s cool.” 

By the time the 24-hour day comes around, the overnight shift feels less like a favor and more like something the staff runs themselves. From mixing ice cream in the back to serving the last customer at midnight, the employees treat the overnight shift as their own tradition, another way to keep morale going.

For a business built on something as simple as mixing milk, cream, sugar, butterfat, and vanilla, Frisbie’s has found its recipe in community, creativity, and the willingness to stay up all night just to keep their customers’ sweet tooth satisfied.

Feature Image – Frisbies / Photo Credit by Gabriella Page