Milly's Ice Cream

By: Jan Morgan-Swegle

There are so many sweet things in life that we enjoy—the sound of children laughing, watching new puppies as they start to discover the world and even walking in a spring shower on a chilly April morning. Thanks to Elizabeth Iannacone and her family, residents of Leland can count one more sweet thing to enjoy, Milly’s Ice Cream Shop, at 2024 Olde Regent Way (between 5 Guys and Capelli’s Salon, just look for the pink picnic tables!)

Milly’s enjoyed a very successful opening in October. According to Elizabeth, “Leland really loves ice cream. At the opening and in the four days after that, the residents ate 12 gallons of our Brown Butter Bourbon Truffle flavor. The community has been really supportive of us. We definitely filled a need here in Leland.”

Like many of us, Elizabeth and her family are transplants, coming from the Jersey Shore area, where, she said, “There were ice cream shops all over the place. Here in Leland, there’s an ice cream shop close to the downtown area, which is run by some terrific people, but other than that, you have to go into Wilmington to get ice cream. People from Waterford just love driving up in their golf carts and sitting outside to enjoy their favorite flavor and the beautiful weather. We’re getting people from Brunswick Forest, Compass Pointe and all around this area.”

I asked Elizabeth if opening an ice cream shop was a dream or a business venture? “It’s both,” she said, “I graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, so creating things has always been important to me. The ice cream shop gives me the time and opportunity to be creative while I build roots here in Leland with my husband and children. My husband has been a big help in getting the shop going and the kids love to come here.”

Milly’s offers 28 flavors of ice cream as well as vanilla and chocolate soft serve also Dole Soft Serve with flavors of pineapple, strawberry, pomegranate and cherry along with interesting combinations of toppings.

Elizabeth explained that the shop was named for her daughter, Milly, who at five was a big fan of the cartoon, Peppa Pig. If you’ve ever watched Peppa, you know that one of her favorite things to do is to jump in muddy puddles. Elizabeth said, “One day we were out getting ice cream. It rained earlier, so Milly was wearing her raincoat and got some ice cream on it. It reminded me of Peppa Pig, so I told Milly to jump in one of the puddles nearby with her ice cream cone and I took a picture. As we were trying to decide on a name for the shop, I remembered that image and I just knew that was the right name for the shop and vision for the logo. We also have a son, Christopher, who is seven, he likes the attention of “owning” an ice cream shop. He loves to see people in the shop or sitting outside, it’s a social thing for him.”

Milly attends the Roger Bacon Academy in Leland and enjoys the “rock star” status of being the Milly of Milly’s Ice Cream Shop. Elizabeth pointed to the signs overhead listing the ice cream flavors in beautiful printing and said, “These were done by Laurie Benton, the Headmaster at the academy. When I say the community support for our shop has been great, that’s what I mean. Everyone is helping out to contribute to our success.”

Elizabeth and her team have their hands “happily” full serving our community. “What’s next,” I asked? Elizabeth just laughed and said, “For right now, this is enough. I’d like to do “princess” parties in the future or maybe have Santa Claus here in December, but those are just ideas at this point. Right now, I’m loving being in Leland, watching my children grow up and serving ice cream to a great community.”