New Jersey suburbs provide easy access to multitudinous acquisitions, short car rides from mall strips and big-box stores aplenty. In my younger years, “buying things” meant being allotted a small allowance and investing in frivolous teenage expenditures at the local mom-and-pop stores within my Brooklyn hometown.
Yet, generational storefront owners/managers hold a tenuous position these days. Felled by steely corporate enterprises, many once-vibrant storefront communities are left to wither, becoming devoid of warmth and familial style connections.
Fortunately, a local family-owned, vintage gem prevails in nearby Medford, N.J. Leo’s Ice Cream Company, makers of “Leo’s Famous Yum Yum” (originally launched in Camden, N.J.), serves as a family-and-friends gathering place, a small-town, nostalgically decorated respite from summertime swelter and long workaday toil.
Since 1936, Leo’s has taken pride in using the most natural ingredients at hand. To this day, original recipes are followed in order to produce an Italian ice delicacy — creamy, rich and distinct from the water ices offered by other burgeoning 20th century family businesses. Made famous by its distinctive methods of producing this tantalizing treat, Leo’s also creates homemade, hand-dipped ice creams, along with cakes, gelati, sorbets and other assorted Italian specialty desserts.
Bike-riding through Pineland trails to Leo’s, one anticipates the velvety lusciousness of flavors like “Rainbow” or “Choco-mint.” True to its surroundings, consideration must be given to “The Sinatra,” or “Molasses Paddle” or “Aged Balsamic Strawberry,” no doubt a seasonal item during the strawberry harvest season.
Seventy-nine years have passed since Giovanni Leo began his successful Italian ices empire. When I specifically asked, “What holds this family close; what are the qualities which make it all mesh?” granddaughter Renata was quick to say, “Tradition!” She described deeply rooted Italian traits and values passed down through generations. Also, she added, it is love — hers and her co-owner siblings — for their dad that makes it work.
Cindy Weinstein is degreed in special education, with training primarily for the deaf preschool and elementary school populations. She spends her spare time musing on life's “magic” as it unfolds, while dabbling in yoga, journalistic writing and poetry. She cites tap dancing as a serious bucket-list item. Cindy is our ground reporter from Medford, N.J.
From Medford, New Jersey
Labor of Love
by Cindy Weinstein