ABOUT US
Denville Dairy is a premium ice cream store located in Denville, New Jersey. We are a family run establishment in business for over fifty years. We pride ourselves in making the best possible homemade premium hard ice cream, sherbet and Italian ices. We rotate through over one hundred specialty and seasonal flavors. Twenty-eight of these flavors are available for scooping at any one time. There is fresh vanilla and chocolate soft serve ice cream available. Fresh fat free/low sugar and fat free/sugar free soft serve products are options as well.
You can also shop a full line of take home products. These include ice cream cakes, ice cream pies, and pre-packaged hard ice cream. We also carry a huge variety of take home ice cream treats. Ice cream sandwiches, mini sundaes, dixie cups, in addition to nonfat and sugar free treats are always a great dessert to please your family and friends.
Expect a wait during the nice days of spring and through the summer. Though we are not a traditional ice cream parlor with seating, you can enjoy your ice cream on both indoor and outdoor bench seating. Or you can take a stroll down Broadway and its adjoining streets to see all of the other businesses and wonderful things Denville has to offer.
We take a lot of pride in what we do. You can taste the difference in all of our products. Come for a visit and see for yourself.
Sincerely,
The Fine Family
OUR HISTORY
“Family pride is our main ingredient.”
Jack Fine
Jack Fine and Lois Ciecinski were born and raised in Kingston, Pennsylvania. They met at Kingston High School where they dated for four years and graduated in 1960. They were married a year later and moved to Clifton, New Jersey to start a life of their own.
Jack did his best to make ends meet by working whatever hours he could at various, full and part time jobs. He did everything from working overnight washing dishes at a bakery to making pizzas at a pizzeria. Pumping gas and towing cars to working in a machine shop and flipping burgers at the local Wetson’s.
In 1964 he partnered with Bob Cummins, a full time school teacher and part time entrepreneur to run a luncheonette together in Bernardsville. They would soon sell that business and buy their first Dairy Queen franchise in the town of Parsippany in 1966. It wasn’t long before they bought three more Dairy Queens. Two of the stores were located in Nutley and Hillside. The third in Denville was located where Bloomfield Ave. meets East Main St. on what is now an open parking lot next to the Valley National Bank. After a couple years together Bob wanted to retire from teaching and make a change in business ventures. He moved to Pennsylvania where he bought a campground and started a shed building business. To liquidate the partnership, three of the four stores were sold. Jack chose to keep the store in Denville.
Soon after becoming the sole proprietor Jack and Lois decided to leave the Dairy Queen franchise and become independent. They called their new endeavor “Denville Dairy.” Concentrating on the best ingredients and personal taste they started making their own hard ice cream. It was a seasonal business and a small store with two outdoor walk up windows. They were only open nine months out of the year. The Fine family sold Christmas trees for extra money to make it through the winter months.
Their four children Karen, Jack Jr., Richard and Patrick grew up in the family business. They helped out as early as eight years old picking up litter in the parking lot, cleaning dishes, washing windows, and sweeping floors. By the age of thirteen they were waiting on customers, decorating cakes and making product.
In 1985 the store’s 20 year lease on the property could not renewed due to the bank next door wanting to expand. The business moved from East Main Street to Broadway and renovated a fabric store into the new Denville Dairy. For the next twenty-six years Jack and Lois continued to work hard and watched their business grow. They would also see their family grow, celebrating four marriages and welcoming six grandchildren.
In 2011, we all felt the destruction of Hurricane Irene. The store was flooded and needed to be rebuilt. With the help of key employees, family, and friends the store was totally renovated with a whole new look.
Our family suffered a great loss in March of 2013 when Jack passed away at the age of seventy. Two and a half years later in October of 2015, at the age of seventy-three we would also mourn the loss of Lois after a long battle with cancer. Karen, Richard and Patrick now with over one hundred years of experience between them continue to run the business maintaining the values and ideals their parents instilled in them. Always remembering, family, hard work and quality is the foundation of Denville Dairy.
