Time for another review. The creemees are a bit larger than last year it seems, and the prices are…read morestill super-reasonable. No surprises at the Sugar Shack, a delightful trip through rural NY and South-Western Vermont, albeit 40 plus miles one way for us. Been there perhaps a dozen times since 2024, still have found nothing that would make me even think about a rating less than 5 stars.
I am a picky, demanding, relatively hard to please customer. I believe that the key to running a business is consistency. Run whatever kind of business you want to run but be consistent. The customer has a right to know what to expect next time, after his first visit . Any business can hit it just right and deliver a world class experience once; the key to a steady 5 star rating is to deliver that time and time again.
Sugar Shack does exactly that. Their creemees are, quite simply put, perfect. First time, third time, eighth time, twelfth time. Never varying in intense maple flavor that tastes just like syrup right out of the jug. Never poor consistency. Always, always, thick and creamy and substantial. I did notice one difference late last summer; the size of the large cones increased a bit with no corresponding price increase.
Prices for the creemees are super reasonable. Five of us went there the other day and the bill was pennies over $20. Two larges, 3 smalls. For a premium quality cone filled with plenty of ice cream, being sold in a touristy area, that is phenomenal.
Don't like ice cream? What the heck is wrong with you???? :) Nevertheless, their apple cider donuts, especially the cinnamon coated version, are really good. Always fresh, and much less greasy than the genre is known for. Not heartburn, no disgusting grease soaked bag on the way home, just plain great flavor and freshness.
Time for a bit of a ramble. These people, and their business, are real. The two young ladies that run the store are charming and efficient. They are nice to customers because they are nice people, not because there is a tip jar on the counter. I have been on enough cruises and eaten in enough restaurants in my 76 years to have developed a pretty accurate sense of someone being phony because they are in a tipped position, and being blunt, this ain't that.
It would seem that the key to the Sugar Shack for me is the realness, the staff, the creemees. Somehow though there is more. They have a wonderful tree shaded side yard with old fashioned picnic tables.
Those tables outside, so unassuming, so very not fancy, so utterly 'country', just fit perfectly with the trees and the overall rural ambiance. Going there is relaxing and brings me back to being a much much younger version of myself. Born and raised in NYC, at 14 the family moved to a town in Upstate NY with a population of 1200. Sugar Shack brings back memories of little roadside ice cream places and snack bars and a slower, more peaceful, just plain better time.
The owner and her staff (relatives if I understand correctly) are providing a lot more than ice cream and maple syrup and assorted delicious premium treats and foodstuffs. They are bringing us back in time to when business was interactions between people, not transactions with a multi-national corporation.
Well done, ladies, well done.
