Maurer's Dairy and Ice Cream Shoppe- Shamokin, PA

Ice Cream is a rite of passage here in the Coal Region.  I remember as a child on a warm summer's night loading up the family in the car and taking a ride to the Tastee Freeze in Shenandoah Heights or Rickard's Dairy in Gordon.

In the city of Shamokin, Maurer's Dairy has been in business for years.  I'm not sure how long, but it is considered by many to be a hallmark of the city, one of the highlights of its culinary culture.  I first discovered Maurer's Dairy back in the late 1990's, as it became a stop for me between my home in Frackville and my school, Susquehanna University.  

Maurer's advertises itself as the home of Bittersweet Ice Cream.  This is simply (as far as I can tell) some Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with Bittersweet Chocolate Chips mixed throughout.  As with all of their varieties, the Bittersweet Ice Cream is homemade.  You can really taste the care that goes into this ice cream, especially, in my opinion, the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.  To me, this should be the real highlight of their ice cream menu- not only do you get the bittersweet ice cream, but you get it with the added emphasis of buttery, soft chunks of cookie dough.  Delicious!

Although many come here for the ice cream, Maurer's also serves actual food.  The inside of the restaurant looks like a prototypical ice cream parlor, and I suspect that this layout has been in place for a very long time.  The good news is that, despite its apparent age, they keep the place pretty clean.

So how is the food?  Well, it depends what food you are talking about.  I have had Maurer's food for lunch multiple times as take out, and each time it has been pretty good.  They do a decent job with club sandwiches, but my favorite thing on their menu is the Chicken Bacon Ranch Sub.  It's not a huge sub, which is probably a good thing given all the salt and fat.  It tastes delicious, though- Chicken, bacon, and ranch dressing is an excellent combination.

I've also had Maurer's for breakfast.  Their omelets are very good- I have had the ham and cheese and bacon and cheese varieties, and the egg is good, the cheese is  distributed throughout, and there is plenty of meat inside.  Just for your information, Maurer's serves the "pocket of meat and cheese folded up in an egg" variety, which in my opinion, is better than the "random mix of meat, cheese, and egg" variety you can get at other places.

I had homefries with my omelets, and to be honest, they weren't anything special.  To be more honest, they weren't cooked through all the way.  Their homefries are clumps of potatoes- not quite the disks you get at some places, not quite the little cubes of potato you get at others.  Its's somewhere in between, and I wish they would change it because it is not working.  

I should also note that I had about a quart of butter on my toast.  Tastes delicious, but I was checking my heart rate all day.  My wife says I'm paranoid about it.  Still, the toast might have taken about five months off of the end of my life, despite its deliciousness.

I was severely disappointed in their old style fountain sodas.  First off, Maurer's serves Pepsi, which is a strike against them for me, since I much rather have Coke.  Secondly, they offer syrup additions, with a variety of flavors.  I tried their Pepsi with cherry syrup.  I don't know for sure, but I think I had the recommended daily allowance of sugar for ten days in my first sip.  It was sickeningly, cloyingly sweet.  Maurer's also happens to have bottles of local company Big Ben's in the refrigerator at the entrance.  Next time I'll get that instead.  

So I would really recommend Maurer's for the ice cream.  For the food, it seems touch and go, though they have some interesting sandwich options.

Maurer's Dairy and Ice Cream Shoppe

34 South Market Street

Shamokin, PA 17872

(570)644-1316