Business is booming at this once-controversial Rockland ice cream shop

Newty’s, a little ice cream shop on the Rockland shore, only opened on July 31. But owners Sally Levi and Dominic Turgeon already have regular customers.

The ice cream and coffee shop is in Levi and Turgeon’s backyard, accessible from a gate off Sandy Beach Park. An old red truck and a garden create a border between the grassy yard of the shop and the backyard, where Turgeon’s father sits on a camp chair and enjoys the balmy weather with his dog, Chloe.

But getting Newty’s off the ground wasn’t easy. A months-long back-and-forth with the Rockland Planning Board and some backlash from neighbors pushed the opening day back. Neighbors spoke at several City Council meetings , worried that Newty’s would bring more noise and traffic to the area. Several did not want any commercial activity going on in their residential neighborhood.

Since the shop’s opening, though, Levi said none of those things have been a problem. Some neighbors who were initially against the shop have even come to apologize to Levi.

Business has been great, Levi and Turgeon said. Friends and family of the couple stop by to chat and get ice cream, which is from Round Top in Damariscotta, and kids switch between eating their sundaes and playing “cone hole” (cornhole, with an ice cream cone painted on the board).

Traffic is fine, since most people stop by on foot or bike while at the park. Levi uses residential lighting and closes at 9 p.m.

“Nobody leaves here upset,” Turgeon said.

In fact, it was the neighborhood children who inspired Levi and Turgeon to open up the shop. Once, when sitting in the backyard of the house that’s still under construction, Turgeon said a child came up to the fence asking for snacks.

They didn’t have any snacks, unfortunately, but the child inspired the idea for the commercially zoned shack in the house’s backyard.

“The light bulb went on, and I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do something like that, for the park and the community,’” Turgeon said.

Levi said the place is a dream of hers come true. She had always wanted to open a cafe, and the shop, only accessible by foot, brings people together, including her family. Turgeon’s mother works at the shop from open to close, and sometimes the couples’ nieces and nephews help out.

“This is very old fashioned, and in some ways out of date, but it’s exactly what’s needed,” Levi said.

Terry Pinto, the director of the Rockland Pollution Control Department, agreed that a community-driven space in the park was needed. He’s become friends with Levi and Turgeon since the shop’s opening, as he walks by and gets an ice cream while spending time in the park that he had a part in creating.

“A town should never have to worry about tourists,” Pinto said. “If they make it great for the people who live there, everything else happens automatically.”