Raymond "Pat" Mitchell enjoying one of his own ice cream cones

Pat Mitchell's spirit will never melt

Alumni who have fond memories of Pat Mitchell's Homemade Ice Cream will be sad to learn that Raymond "Pat" Mitchell, who founded the store in 1950 in his hometown of Endicott, died Dec. 18, 2002, at age 91. But the legacy of the premium ice cream he made famous throughout the region lives on.

The ice cream shop is thriving under the stewardship of Tess Dzuba, who took over the business in 1994. "When my husband and I bought it, the business was on its way out," she said. "It had changed ownership several times since Pat Mitchell had retired in the 1980s. But we'd lived here all our lives and didn't want to see it go."

Dzuba has expanded the business, and there are now three Pat Mitchell's shops: one on Vestal Avenue in Endicott (just down the street from the original shop, which was demolished when Main Street was widened in 1995), a second on Vestal Avenue in Binghamton and a third in Apalachin. Dzuba, who regarded Mitchell as a friend and was planning a celebration in honor of the 50th anniversary of the shop before Mitchell died last year, maintains close ties with the family. It made her proud that, after Mitchell himself came to visit in 2000, he said he had only one regret: that he hadn't sold the business directly to the Dzubas.

Dzuba stays true to Mitchell's old-fashioned approach to ice-cream making. "We use the same recipes," she said. "We hand-peel cantaloupes we buy through the farmer's market, hand-slice the bananas and hand-chunk the chocolate."

What's hand-chunked chocolate? "You start with huge slabs of a special chocolate that's made to be the same consistency, when frozen in ice cream, as a chocolate bar on the shelf," Dzuba explained. "So when you eat it, it's not hard or waxy. Before mixing it into the ice cream, you break it apart by hand, which has to be done at just the right temperature -- if it's too cold, it's brittle and splinters, and if it's too warm, it's melty." But when it's done just right, it forms delicious dice-sized chunks that melt when they hit your tongue. Mm-hmm!

Dzuba is always welcoming of the many Binghamton alumni who love to revisit Pat Mitchell's for the wonderful flavors and the sweet nostalgia it brings.

Raymond "Pat" Mitchell (center) with Vern Turner, who makes those scrumptious Pat Mitchell's ice cream cakes, and current shop owner Tess Dzuba.