Reed’s Dairy, based in Idaho Falls, recently opened a retail store in Meridian, offering handmade ice cream, soup, sandwiches and dairy products at 1735 W. Chinden Blvd., Suite 130. (Photo by Otto Kitsinger)
By Tony Harrison
For the Journal
MERIDIAN — Idaho’s best ice cream is now available in the Treasure Valley. Reed’s Dairy, a milk producer and dairy foods purveyor based in Idaho Falls, recently opened a retail store in Meridian.
In August, MSN Lifestyle reported Reed’s Dairy offers the best ice cream in Idaho in a feature about the best ice cream parlor in every U.S. state. It noted the family owned business “has gained an impressive 4.8 star rating on Google and 4.5 on TripAdvisor.”
The Meridian store is at 1735 W. Chinden Blvd. in Suite 130 in a strip mall on the corner of North Linder Road. It’s open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and can be reached via phone at 208-846-7220.
Reed’s Dairy ice cream is handmade at the Idaho Falls dairy in small batches. The dairy crafts it five gallons at a time in an old-fashioned batch freezer with all-natural ingredients and no artificial stabilizers.
The Meridian store offers 24 flavors, including standards like vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, huckleberry, rocky road, cookies and cream, praline supreme and maple nut. Its seasonal varieties rotate daily from among the 49 flavors it makes available nationwide via mail order.
Dessert isn’t the only thing on the menu at Reed’s Dairy, though. In addition to ice cream and milkshakes, the Meridian store serves its signature tomato-basil soup and grilled cheese and ham-and-cheese sandwiches.
The store also offers a variety of dairy products for takeout, including butter, yogurt, cottage cheese, cheddar cheese, squeaky cheese curds, chocolate milk, and a wide array of white milk like skim, 1 percent, 2 percent, whole, and raw. You can take its ice cream home with you, too, in pints, half-gallons, and 2-1/2 gallon tubs. During the holiday season the dairy offers eggnog and chocolate nog, which is half chocolate milk and half eggnog.
Reed’s Dairy was founded in Idaho Falls in 1955 and has been selling milk to the public since 1962. It operates a home-delivery service in Idaho Falls and two retail ice cream shops — one at the farm and another in nearby Ammon. The dairy milks a growing herd of 185 Holsteins.
According to Reed’s Dairy president Alan Reed, a Treasure Valley retail store has been in the planning since last year when the company acquired the local home-delivery service Boise Milk, a former customer.
“We moved into the Treasure Valley because a growing number of people here prefer wholesome, farm-fresh products and really like to know where their food comes from,” he says. “Almost weekly we have a dozen people from the Treasure Valley stop in at one of our Idaho Falls stores and beg us to open an ice cream shop in Boise.”
The dairy plans to open at least two more ice cream shops in the Treasure Valley. Its second store will open in Kuna or Meridian as early as next summer.
Meanwhile, Reed says demand for the home-delivery service, which the company has rebranded as Reed’s Dairy, continues to grow. He’s broadened the offerings to include conventional and organic produce, yogurt, butter, cottage cheese, Ballard and Gossner cheese, fresh-baked goods, farm-fresh eggs and meat, salsa, coffee, honey, and sweets from Idaho producers. The dairy also has expanded its home-delivery territory to virtually the entire Treasure Valley, including Boise, Caldwell, Eagle, Meridian, Middleton, Nampa, Star, and — as of just a few weeks ago — Emmett.
“It’s like a farmer’s market on wheels that delivers to your doorstep,” Reed says.
Visit ReedsDairy.com for more details.
