A recent visit to Round Hill Dairy in Mount Vernon, Ohio, had me diving into the history of Mount Vernon and the Curtis Family.  A woman that I walk with sometimes in the morning, Jessie, considers herself to be an ice cream aficionado.  She told me, in no uncertain terms, that Round Hill Dairy was THE best ice cream in Ohio.  If you have read this blog for any amount of time, you know that I love to try new ice cream places.  I was intrigued and marked it down as a place to try.

Tom and I have spent a lot of time with my mom in the last month.  We have been working the list of things to do following my dad’s death.  It gets pretty heavy sometimes and we need to do something fun as a break.  On a Saturday following another funeral for a family friend, we worked through some of her list.  But the weather was perfect and so we decided we needed to do something fun – we needed to get some ice cream.

We drove the 27 miles from Mom’s condo to Round Hill Dairy in Mount Vernon.  It was a really pretty drive through verdant farmland.  Round Hill Dairy is located on Ohio Route 3 on the north side of Mount Vernon.  Mom remembered driving on this road when she would go from Ohio State University back home to the farm in Burbank.  She probably passed Round Hill Dairy.

Henry B Curtis was one of the first settlers in Mt. Vernon.  He arrived in Mount Vernon in 1817 and quickly became one of the most successful men in town.  Henry B was a lawyer and was instrumental in bringing the railroad to Mount Vernon.  Henry helped find the land for Kenyon College and was active in the Underground Railroad.  He built the Curtis Mansion and died there in 1885.  The Curtis Mansion is located on Round Hill in Mount Vernon and the family farm, Round Hill Dairy, was adjacent to it.

One of Henry B’s descendents, Walter, stocked Round Hill Dairy with Jersey cows, whose milk is rich in butterfat.  Walter’s son, Henry L Curtis, took over the dairy when his father died in 1946.  He and his wife, Alice, built the dairy and the successful ice cream business that continues today.  The current ice cream store was built in 1954, which means my mom would have driven by it during the years she was living in Columbus.

Although the Dairy has been through several owners since Henry L and Alice Curtis retired in 1980, it is back under the ownership of the Curtis family through partners Tyler McCann and Johnny Curtis.  They bought and restored the Dairy at its current location in 2018.  Today Round Hill Ice Cream is made from milk produced by dairy cows in Ohio.  You can look at their website and read about the family farms that provide the milk.

Round Hill Dairy was steadily busy the day we visited.  There was seating inside and out.  We stood at the counter and the young people working there answered our questions.  I always like to ask the servers what flavor is the best.  One server told me “Cow Tracks” and another said the monthly flavor.  I didn’t see a monthly flavor so I asked what it was.  She admitted they were out of it for the rest of the month (we were there May 30).  It had been blueberry cheesecake.  Another server admitted that her favorite was vanilla.

Tom got one scoop of vanilla with chocolate syrup.  Mom got cookies and cream on a cone.  I couldn’t decide between the Cow Tracks and Mint Chocolate Chip so I got one of each.  We all agreed the ice cream was very good, but were not sure that it beat Tofts in Sandusky or Graeters.  It is definitely the ice cream to get if you are in Mount Vernon.  It would be perfect after a day of riding along the Heart of Ohio or the Kokosing Gap Trail.

Round Hill Dairy in Mount Vernon is open seasonally.  During the summer it is open seven days a week.  Weekdays 3:30 until 9.  Saturday and Sunday noon until 9.  Stop in for a scoop or two – you won’t be sorry.