Purity Ice Cream Menu

Purity Ice Cream, the Pride of the Finger Lakes, was first produced in 1936 when Leo Guentert opened his shop on Ithaca's First Street. Leo and his wife Sylvia made and sold ice cream crafted with basic, natural ingredients, as was the style in the 30's when commercial ice cream-making in the U.S. was just getting under way.

Leo, a native of Germany, graduated from Cornell University, then worked for Nestle´ and the now defunct Ithaca Ice Cream Company, prior to setting out on his own business adventure. He loved chocolate ice cream and thought he could make it better than what he found on the market. Not only did he succeed with chocolate, but also his vanilla and his bittersweet flavors soon became local legends.

His grand daughter, Margo McLaughlin Klose, took over the reigns upon Leo's death at the age of 96. Over the years Purity grew to serve Central New York scoop shops and grocery stores from Norwich in the east, to Binghamton in the south, to the fringes of Syracuse and Rochester to the north. This area, as it turns out, is the region of New York State known as the Finger Lakes. With beautiful hills and lakes, the area has always been strong dairy country and Purity has always been a user of locally produced milk. To this day, our dairy farmer delivers milk fresh three times a week.

The time it takes to get our ice cream made and to the consumer is unmatched by national brands coming from many states away! But those national brands have something that Purity lacks: Lots of marketing muscle, which translates into big advertising and promotion budgets and prime shelf space in the chain grocery stores. It has been very hard to compete in a rapidly consolidating industry. Over the years, Purity saw its market shrink, as national brands became the thing to eat.

In 1998, Bruce and Heather Lane bought Purity with an eye towards revitalizing this Finger Lakes icon. Taking a page from the beer industry, which saw great consolidation into a few national brands, followed by a boom in consumer interest in local, high quality "boutique" products, Purity is now working to re-establish its standing in the hearts and stomachs of Central New Yorkers as the "Ice Cream of the Finger Lakes".

Given the wonderful time warp in which we at Purity live, we have the strategic advantage of still using the original recipes...we truly are making ice cream the way it used to be made. In small batches. With local, high quality natural ingredients. And our strategy is working! More and more people are discovering (or re-discovering!) Purity Ice Cream and our market is once again growing. We have a long way to go before we can proclaim ourselves solid competitors with the big guys, but for those who have tasted our Vanilla, or our Mint Chocolate Chip, or our incredibly special Mocha Chip, Purity is already established as an ice cream of unmatched quality and taste.---------------------------
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It seems that one hot Sunday afternoon in 1891, John M. Scott, the pastor of the Unitarian Church, and one of his faithful parishioners, Chester Platt, repaired to the latter's drug store for some refreshment and a review of the just concluded sermon. At his store, the Platt & Colt Pharmacy (located at what is now 216 East State Street), Mr. Platt got two dishes of ice cream from Miss DeForest Christiance, who was tending the soda fountain. He plopped a candied cherry on top of each dish of ice cream and covered the whole thing with cherry syrup, "on a whim".

What resulted not only looked good, it tasted great! The naming thing came next. What to call such a thing? Mr. Scott suggested "Cherry Sunday" as a gesture towards the day. Mr. Platt, the businessman, liked the name and from then on, his soda fountain featured Cherry Sundays. Other flavors followed and soon other soda fountains joined the parade.

Cornell University students took the dessert home with them on vacations and their local soda fountains added to the art of the Sunday. The name was also seen as "sundae", "sundi", and Sundai" as competing syrup makers got into the act of providing the sweet stuff to top local ice creams.

Other towns have claimed invention of the ice cream sundae over the years, but none have been able to show documentation back as far as the 1890's like Deforest Christiance' eyewitness account which showed up in letter form and newspaper accounts (Ithaca Journal, April 11, 1892).

Source: "The Ice Cream Sundae" by Gretchen Sachse, Tompkins County Historian, July 25, 1996

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  junior 1.85
1 scoop $2.25
2 scoops $2.85
3 scoops $3.65
Waffle cone-add $1.00
Sprinkles :rainbow or chocolate .30
Candies  add .75
Gummy Bears-Reese's Pieces
Butterfinger—Heath bar
Whoppers  Oreos
Mixed Nuts  M&M

  Mik Shakes & Floats
Regular $3.89
Thick     $3.90
Malt      $4.39
Floats
Root beer ,Orange  $3.75
Hurricane              $4.75
(Really thick shake infused with your choice of candy or nuts)

Specialty Shakes  $4.05
All nighters
sleeper awake (coffee ice cream )shot of coffee
Minty Bright Eyes
mint chocolate chip ice cream
Shot of coffee
Creamsicle
French vanilla ice cream  shot of  O J

Includes topping whipped cream and a cherry
Small  1 scoop  $3.00
Large 2 scoops $3.90
Topping 
Hot Fudge
Hershey Syrup
Peanut Butter
Marshmallow
Carmel
Strawberries

Specialty   Sundaes
               Turtle $4.20
Any flavor Ice cream
Carmel Pecan Hot fudge Whipped cream  
          Cookie  $4.20
1 homemade choc chip
1 scoop Ice cream
whipped cream Cherry
          Brownie  $4.20
1 brownie (homemade)
1 scoop ice cream
Hot Fudge . Cherry
whipcream
          Apple Crisp  $4.20
1 scoop ice cream
Carmel; sauce
Whipped Cream
           Banana Split  $4.50
1 banana
1 scoop Vanilla ,
Chocolate and Strawberry Pineapple sauce Hershey syrups Whipped Cream