Right after Stratton and Mary Leopold got married in 1995, they flew to Savannah, Ga., and headed to the Citizens & Southern National Bank.
There, Stratton unlocked a safe deposit box and showed Mary his father’s recipe for the ice cream produced at the family business, Leopold’s Ice Cream in Savannah.
“Now I can show you this,” Stratton told his new bride.
The recipe is so closely held that only Stratton makes the ice cream base—for all 5,000 gallons sold each month. Employees are taught how to make Leopold’s dozens of flavors, but they never learn how to make the base.
It all sounds like a Hollywood movie. Indeed, it could have been just that.
Stratton didn’t go right into the family business after college. He decided to seek his fortune elsewhere and ended up moving to Los Angeles. He worked on a number of films, in capacities such as location scout and producer, and eventually became an executive at Paramount Pictures. He still produces films on a freelance basis.
Memorabilia from some of Stratton’s films decorates the shop. Most of the business’s original fixtures are there, too, including the sink where Stratton grew up washing glasses [“There’s something zen about it, I still do it today”] and the granite soda counter.
George and Peter Leopold—Stratton’s uncle and father, respectively—moved to Savannah after World War I to join their sister there. They had emigrated from Sparta, Greece to Brazil, Ind., where a family member taught them to make sweet treats. They opened the ice cream shop in 1919. A third brother, Basil, later joined them.
What was it like to grow up in an ice cream shop? “It was fabulous,” Stratton says. “I had tons of friends because everyone loves ice cream.”
Stratton and Mary moved from Los Angeles to Savannah in 2004. Basil had passed away and his wife was ready to retire, so they took over the business.
Ice cream “generally brings smiles to people’s faces,” Mary says. “It’s not often you see three or four generations at a table and everyone has a smile on their face. It feels good in my soul to know we do something like that.”
Peter Leopold originated Tutti Frutti, a rum-based flavor, nearly a century ago. Another signature flavor, Chocolate Chewies and Cream, has its own family business story.
The cookies used to make Chocolate Chewies and Cream were once supplied by Gottlieb’s Bakery, another family business in Savannah. When it was time for the second generation to exit the bakery, no third-generation member stepped forward, and Gottlieb’s closed. The family’s lead baker came to Leopold’s and demonstrated the cookie recipe so their secret family recipe could be married with Leopold’s family secret.
No third-generation member is available to carry on the Leopold legacy. Stratton and Mary have no children. They have five nieces and nephews, but none has come into the business.
Stratton and Mary hope to find a successor who will carry on their tradition of community service. The store’s “I Pledge” project gives a free ice cream cone to children 12 and under who recite the Pledge of Allegiance from memory in July. Leopold’s Ice Cream launched the project locally in 2010 and shares promotional materials with participating ice cream stores across the country.
Leopold’s also sponsors ice cream parties for the children of military members stationed in the area. Screenings of Stratton’s films benefit children of fallen police officers and firefighters.
Anyone interested in buying the shop must be “community-minded and believe in customer service and presentation,” Mary says.
Stratton describes a visit from a potential buyer. “He [said] our percentage of donations is way too high.”
Stratton scoffs at the idea. “It’s ice cream. It’s not like we’re giving away Porsches. My father did that, and we’ll always do that.”
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