Wind the clock back a few decades or even a century, and the words “Dalzell Dairy” meant something in Leelanau County. For 75 years and three generations, Northport’s Dalzell family was synonymous with local milk deliveries – first to homes, then to retailers. Now, 31 years after the last Dalzell milkman hung up his bottles, the Dalzell Dairy brand is coming back in Leelanau County. Only this time, instead of Northport, it’s Suttons Bay; and instead of milk, it’s ice cream. The Leelanau Ticker has the scoop (pun very much intended) on this new business, and on a handful of other retail, restaurant, and business news from around the county.

Dalzell Dairy

The Leelanau Ticker broke the news in March that Dalzell Dairy would be taking up residence in the digs formerly occupied by Suttons Bay ice cream shop Scoops 22. What we didn’t tell you about was the long local history of the Dalzell family, or how that family was one of the county’s go-to sources for milk for three-quarters of a century.

“From 1918 to 1993, our family served the community by being milkmen,” Haley Fox (née Dalzell) tells the Leelanau Ticker. Dalzell Dairy, the ice cream shop, is intended as a tribute to the three generations that worked in that 75-year business.

The story starts with Thomas Roy, Fox’s great-great-grandfather, who started a dairy business in Northport in 1918 and ran it until 1929. Roy’s son-in-law, Donald F. Dalzell, took over the operation after that and ran it for 25 years, before handing it off to his son, Donald J. Dalzell, in 1954. Donald J. tallied 39 years in the milk delivery business before calling it quits in 1993.

Fox, who will run Dalzell Dairy alongside her husband Jake, says the pair have been dreaming about opening their own ice cream shop in Suttons Bay for years. She’s a nurse and he’s an electrician, but Fox says the idea of carrying on the family legacy was too appealing to pass up. Thanks to an assist from Fox’s dad – Doug Dalzell, who owns the building at 403 North Joseph Street that will serve as Dalzell Dairy’s home – the dream became a reality.

The ice cream shop had its grand opening last Friday, and will be open 11am-8pm Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays throughout the spring, with plans to add more days and later hours as summer approaches. The business serves a variety of ice cream flavors from Moomers in Traverse City and Guernsey Farms Dairy in Northville, as well as soft-serve and vegan options, milkshakes, malts, and more.

The shop will be seasonal, with a likely May-through-September operational calendar. However, Fox says she wants to explore the possibility of doing pop-up events in the off-season to coincide with wintertime Suttons Bay festivities like the Holiday Light Parade and Yeti Fest.

Beyond the ice cream, Dalzell Dairy is also serving up history. The building is bedecked in mementos of the Dalzell family milk business, including photos, old advertisements and newspaper clippings, and more. 

In other Leelanau business news…

>Scoops 22, the former tenant of the space now occupied by Dalzell Dairy, will relaunch this summer as a food truck “located just outside the village limits of Suttons Bay.” Lori Buchan, proprietor of both Scoops 22 and Buchan’s West Bay, announced on Facebook last month that she was “just waiting for the final touches with power and electricity” for the new truck, which bears both “Scoops 22” and “Buchan’s Ice Cream” branding. “It looks small but we will still have most of the treats you’ve come to love,” the Facebook post said of the truck. “The exact location will be released as soon as we get the power and water situated,” the post added. “AND WE WILL HAVE PARKING!!!!!”

>Looking for non-frozen dessert treats in Leelanau County? Leland has the answer with a new location for Great Lakes Chocolate & Dessert Co. That business, described in a press release as “Traverse City’s premier bean-to-bar craft chocolate maker,” is based out of a location on Garfield Avenue in TC. This summer will bring a second location at 101 South Main Street in Leland, the former home of the Leelanau Coffee Roasting Breakfast Bistro – and before that, of the Early Bird café. Opening in June, the store “will offer an array of desserts, including cheesecake, tortes, and tiramisu,” as well as “house-made hot chocolate, frozen summer drinks, and specialty coffee beverages made with Mundos Roasting & Co. espresso.” The Leland location will also incorporate a fast-casual café concept, serving breakfast sandwiches, paninis, house-made waffles, salads, and acai bowls.

>Dune Bird Winery in Northport will kick off a “Live Music Sundays” series this weekend. From 3-6pm every Sunday afternoon from May 5 to October 27, Dune Bird will feature sets from local musicians. The full lineup can now be viewed online, starting this weekend with singer-songwriter SkyeLea Martin.

>Per co-owner Gary Jonas, Farm Club will roll into the summer season by opening its outdoor bar this coming weekend, and then has a slew of May events planned. First is a Mother’s Day week partnership with Wildscape Floral Co., which will be on-site May 10-12 selling “uniquely inspired bouquets just in time for Mother’s Day.” The following week, on Friday, May 17, Farm Club will team up with the Versiti Blood Center of Michigan for a community blood drive event.

The month culminates with Farm Club’s annual plant sale the last three Saturdays in May. 

New this year, Farm Club is also adding DJ sets to each plant sale Saturday, to make those events less of a stop-by-and-buy engagement and more of a full-day hangout.

“They’re fun community events, and adding the DJ is just making it more fun,” Jonas says of the plant sales. “We want people to come buy plants and hang out. It’s a day of buying plants and drinking beer; what’s better than that?”