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Glued to the walls of one little shop in downtown Hastings-on-Hudson are rows of pennies: a symbol of community support for Penny Lick Ice Cream. "I actually got the neighborhood children to help me glue them, and they can still point to where they think they glued their pennies," said Ellen Sledge, owner of Penny Lick Ice Cream. The name is an homage to the slang term originated in Victorian England. "You would pay a penny for ice cream because dairy was a lot cheaper, and you would get it in a glass," Sledge explained. "You would lick it out of the glass." It all started at the Hastings Farmers Market in 2013, where Sledge wheeled her little cart of dreams week after week. “That's all I had, and I was the only employee," she said. "I made the ice cream [and] I sold the ice cream.” She used her time there interacting with customers, who helped her perfect her recipes weekly as she prepared to open her shop. "You can ask them what they think, and they not only want to tell you what they think, but they [also] want to know what's behind every ingredient [and] every recipe," Sledge said. "I took notes of those conversations my first two years of just farmers markets. I still rely on them to this day." Two years later, Sledge opened her first shop in Hastings-On-Hudson before expanding her business to locations in Mamaroneck and Ossining, allowing anyone from around the region to experience her famous homemade ice cream. “Our ice cream has a very short ingredients list...but [it's] very specifically peanut, tree nut, and sesame free," she explained. "It's hard to find a nice cream shop that can guarantee that. We make it all local...All the dairy comes into us pasteurized already and then we re-pasteurize the base and we flavor it. Flavorings can come in a multitude of ways. You can use extracts. You can use pastes. You can use fruit purees. You can use all sorts of things. We're pretty creative at Penny Lick. We are making 40 flavors at any given time, so we're constantly trying new and interesting flavors." As families continue to try all those flavors for years to come, Sledge feels a sense of joy in giving back to her community. "When I was a kid, the ice cream shop and the memories of my parents taking me to the ice cream shop were a big deal," she said. "Those memories are still fresh in my mind down to the color of the walls, and the idea that there's a whole new generation of little kids in our area that are going to have those memories of my business means the world to me." The original Penny Lick Ice Cream shop is located at 580 Warburton Ave. in Hastings-On-Hudson. A Mamaroneck location opened in 2023 at 1212 W Boston Post Road, and another location opened this summer at 1A Westerly Road in Ossining. "
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