PROMOTIONAL FEATURE
l o o h c S Old
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Scooby's Subs PHOTOGRAPHY BY RALPH DEMILIO
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here really is no such thing as a bad ice cream shop. But make no mistake, some ice cream shops are just better than others. You know, like one that offers the best ice cream in a lot more flavors. Or, one that is fun to go to – and not just because of the ice cream. Or, one that tries to give back to the community. Or, one that does all of the above. That’s Old School Ice Cream, located on Baseline Road, across from the Baseline Golf Course. Owned and operated by Beverly and Terry Angelotti since July 2019, Old School Ice Cream is much more than just an ice cream shop. Upon entering, it’s something of a step back in time. “Yes, it’s just like an old-fashioned drug store ice cream counter,” Beverly said. A perfect description. Beverly, whose husband, Terry, runs the adjoining Scooby’s Subs/Real Gourmet Subs, has filled her store with vintage ice cream shop memorabilia. So much so, that the walls are virtually covered with old scoops and vintage ice cream posters and there is a plethora of ice cream glassware as well. How it got that way is a tale of new friendships and an unexpected common cause. Beverly, who owned a pre-school in Broward County for 29 years and one in Ocala, Creative Beginnings Preschool (right next to the ice cream shop) for 10 years, initially planned to make the motif of her new venture reflect her years of running pre-schools. She was going to make it that of an old-fashioned schoolhouse. She even tried to buy an old
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| MAY 2021 | OCALAMAGAZINE.COM
Terry and Beverly Angelotti
one-room schoolhouse but had trouble finding one that was habitable or close enough to make it practical to move it to her land. Nonetheless, while she looked for an available one-room schoolhouse – an effort that eventually was for naught – Beverly was buying old schoolhouse items, everything from benches to desks to rulers — all from right here in Marion County, she says. So, when she abandoned the dream of buying a one-room schoolhouse, she nonetheless proceeded with the “old school” theme, except in a modern store along Baseline Road. Today, when you enter Old School Ice Cream, you will be greeted by old-fashioned desks, benches and an array of old school memorabilia. But there’s more. Through a mutual friend, Beverly met Jim Phillips. They got to talking about what the Angelottis were doing and Phillips, a retired chief assistant state attorney, said he thought he could help with the décor in a special way. In fact, he was sure
he could. Boy, could he. Turns out, Phillips is a collector of ice cream parlor memorabilia. Just his collection of antique ice cream scoops totals more than 300 of all sizes, shapes and colors. Phillips started putting some of his items on display at Old School Ice Cream. Beverly said it blended in perfectly with the old schoolhouse items, and people started to take notice. “A customer came in one day and said, ‘This looks like a museum,’” she said. “So, I told Jim that, and it gave him a place to display his stuff. Now we have every kind of ice cream memorabilia.” Just one display of ice cream scoops located behind the cash register includes 134 of Phillips’s scoops. Yet, he still has hundreds, maybe thousands of other ice cream shop mementos in his collection at home. Beverly says she is so grateful to Phillips and his wife, Connie, for helping make her ice cream shop so beautiful and memorable and giving parts of the ice cream memorabilia col-
