Dedham Business Spotlight: Ron's Gourmet Ice Cream

Ron's Gourmet Ice Cream, 559 High St. in Dedham Square, was voted the third best tasting ice cream in the world in a "The 10 Best of Everything."

Patch sat down with Jay Covitz to find out what they have to offer in their two locations. The one in Dedham has a real ice cream parlor atmosphere and the larger business in Hyde Park includes a bowling alley, perfect for birthday parties.

Patch: Who owns Ron's and how long have you been in business?

JC: Ron's is owned by Ronald and Patricia Covitz.  We took over the space on 559 High St. in 1999 when Maddies closed.  We have been making and selling ice cream in our Hyde Park location since 1981, and have owned the building in Hyde Park since 1952 when Julius Covitz bought the building and changed it from a grocery store into a 10 lane bowling alley.

Patch: Is this a family business? If so, how many generations?

JK: I am the second youngest of Ron's children. I graduated from Bryant University in 2001 and worked as a full time general manager. I make almost all of the ice cream and have recommitted Ron to the candle-pin bowling community.

My sister Julie, the youngest, works as a full-time manager, running birthday parties and training new employees. This makes the third generation of full-time Covitz running the ice cream and bowling business.

Patch: How did this business begin?

JK: If you ask Ron, he will say that he started making homemade ice cream by accident. It started in the early 80s when he had a soft serve ice cream machine in the bowling alley in Hyde Park. He was using Hood Dairy to supply the ice cream mix for the soft serve machine. A delivery mix-up brought the Vice President of Hood in to investigate. Ron had received hard ice cream mix instead of the mix for the soft serve machine. As the Vice President of Hood walked out the door he said, “You know Ron, hard ice cream is going to take off in the future. If you could find a better location, I would tell you to start making hard ice cream.” Well, Ron knew that he could make it work in Hyde Park, and the rest is ice cream history.

Patch: Do you have any specialties?

JK: We have been named the third best tasting ice cream in the world by a National Geographic published book called "The 10 best of Everything" (by Nathan Lande and his son). So I would say that our ice cream is pretty special.

Patch: Do you host parties?

RK: We do not host parties in our Dedham location.  We simply don't have the space to do so.  However, in Hyde Park with our 10 lane bowling alley and our ice cream cakes we can host up to 10 birthday parties in any given weekend.  

Patch: What would like people to know that they don't know about Ron's Gourmet Ice Cream?

RK: I want people to know that we are dedicated to the Dedham community and we working to make Ron's a better place.  We are doing this by keeping up with the trends in ice cream so that we can provide the flavors that everyone wants. 

For more information please contact: (781)326-8664