Miller’ s Ice Cream House New Owners, Anthony & Allex Dobbs
~ story and photos by Jeff Tryon
62 Our Brown County • July / August 2023
When Anthony Dobbs decided to follow in the footsteps of his Nashville shop-owning family, he reached back to one of the most pleasant memories of his youth— and he bought an ice cream shop.
And not just any ice cream shop, but the venerable Miller’ s Ice Cream House, which has been serving home-made ice cream from its location on South Main Street, at the Village Green Building, since 1977. The motto down at Miller’ s Ice Cream House is
“ Yes, we really do make it ourselves!”
“ We make the waffle cones fresh every day,” Dobbs said.“ The smell is overwhelming. A lot of times people come in because they smell that wonderful smell of fresh-made waffle cones.”
And it isn’ t just the cones— all of Miller’ s Ice Cream House’ s sixteen flavors are made in a back room of the store in wooden tub freezers with rock salt, ice, and flavorings.
“ We still make everything just the way that it’ s always been made here, with quality ingredients, just the way you would make it at home in an oldfashioned wooden ice cream freezer, except on a much larger scale,” Dobbs said.“ If it ain’ t broke, don’ t fix it.” Regular menu flavors include many nature or Brown County-inspired tastes like blackberry, persimmon, sassafras, black walnut, maple nut, and pumpkin. There’ s also a flavor called“ brown county campfire,” which mimics that classic camping treat, s’ mores.
Along with the store, the Dobbs’ obtained all of the recipes from nearly 50 years of the ice cream trade in Nashville. Of those, about a dozen are permanent, and the rest can rotate through by season or whim.
Surprisingly, the number one seller of all the flavors is the classic vanilla. Another current favorite is apple butter ice cream, made with apple butter from a neighboring shop, The Harvest Preserve.
Dobbs said that along with his life-long favorite flavor, cookie dough cream, he is also partial to the blueberry custard flavor.
Owning a shop in Nashville must be in the genetic code for Dobbs, whose grandmother, Gloria, owned Pit Bull Leather for years. He grew up around his father