Big Dipper Homemade Ice Cream opens third location

Lazy Mountain visitors now have a new location to pick up a sweet treat on their way back from a hike, horseback ride or bike trip after enjoying all that the area’s many trails and recreational opportunities has to offer.

Big Dipper Homemade Ice Cream, voted Best Dessert and Best Ice Cream in the Best of the Valley Awards in 2024, opened a third location in Lazy Mountain just off of the Old Glenn Highway at the Lazy Landing on Friday. Customers can now enjoy choosing from a selection of homemade ice cream at either a walk-up window with outdoor seating, or a drive-through window for a sweet pick-me-up for the ride home.

“There’s a lot of people that are recreating in that area, and what better thing to do than to have ice cream after you are done,” Big Dipper Homemade Ice Cream owner Rob Brown said.

The Lazy Mountain location will offer the same selection of products as their other stores in Palmer and Wasilla. Having the new location will complement their Palmer store well, Rob said, because of its convenience for customers to stop along the highway. The opening of the new location also occurred on the same date as the company’s four-year anniversary of operation in the Valley.

“It was really exciting to open a new location on our birthday,” Rob said.

The new drive-thru will operate out of the remodeled and retrofitted connex on the same property as that of the old Mom and Pops place, now newly remodeled and refurbished after sitting vacant for nearly 30 years. Rob said that many customers visited during their opening weekend and shared their memories from the old store and the property. He said they were happy to see the property refurbished and turned into a useful space under the new ownership.

“The community as a whole is really happy to see that we’re on the property and the fact that the owners of the lot and the building and the connex have done such a great job in developing that property,” Rob said.

Rob and his wife Lisa always considered a drive-up location, but hadn’t planned on opening a new location this year. After driving past the property in January and noticing a For Lease sign on the connex, they knew they had to give it a shot.

“Honestly, we went into this year not planning to open up a drive up, but one thing led to another and before we knew it, we decided that yeah, let’s go ahead and make a run for it,” Rob said.

The new location will be open seven days per week this summer and will stay open from noon to 9 p.m. for people to enjoy the long summer evenings. With the addition of their Lazy Mountain location, Big Dipper Homemade Ice Cream will look to hire upwards of eight additional employees. Being a family-owned business, Rob said that it has always been important to both himself and Lisa to keep the business as family-friendly as possible.

“We like to maintain that family feel. It’s part of the culture that we have and it’s one of the reasons why we’re able to retain so many good, outstanding young individuals to work for us,” Rob said. “We try to maintain a fun, family-feel to this business.”

Big Dipper Homemade Ice Cream celebrates the opening of the Lazy Mountain location with the community and appreciates the continued support from their customers.

“We can’t wait to share the space with the community,” a post on their Facebook page wrote. “Special thanks to the community that has supported us through the years. You’re the best.”