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Made in Tampa Bay: Lickity Split Ice Cream
FOX 13 News
LAKEWOOD RANCH, Fla. - It started off with a guy making homemade ice cream in his garage. Now the man behind this sweet treat made in Tampa Bay has opened his very first shop.
Matthew Eastman started Lickity Splits Ice Cream in his garage in Lakewood Ranch five years ago.
What started as a small festival and community market-based business has turned into a wholesale distributor supplying 45 retail locations throughout Florida.
“We bought an ice cream machine and tried to figure out how to make our own old-fashioned ice cream,” Eastman recalls.
He recently opened up Lickity Splits' first retail ice cream shop in Sarasota on Siesta Drive.
“It’s enormous! We’ve always wanted to have our own stores. In five years, we’ve really blown the doors open,” he says.
Lickity Splits offers 85 different flavors, plus they make their own preserves, toast their own coconut, candy their own pecans and make their own pralines. They also only use Florida dairy products.
The company shipped 58,000 gallons of ice cream last year.
“Everyone loves it. It reminds them of the old school ice cream they used to get up north. That’s all we want. We just want to be your local ice cream shop," Eastman said.
In addition to his first retail location in Sarasota, Eastman says the next Lickity Splits Ice Cream shop will open in Lakewood Ranch.
By the way, our cameraman says the Superman flavor is to-die-for, and it's not just dyed vanilla.