Sweet Izzy Ice Cream Shop: No Dairy, No Gluten, Lots to Love

It’s what summer memories are made of — sunset at the beach followed by a quick trip to the nearest ice cream shop, standing in line, changing your mind every two minutes about which flavor you’re going to pick when it’s finally your turn. Or the annual drive out to the Cape, stopping at everyone’s favorite spot to break up the trip, maybe even skipping lunch and going straight for a giant soft-serve, balancing the need to quickly lick around the sides to keep your ice cream from dripping down the cone with your desire to savor every last cold, creamy, delicious drop. Increasingly, these simple pleasures are off-limits to people who cannot or choose not to consume dairy. But now Sweet Izzy, in Harwich Port, has got them covered.

According to Elizabeth Doucette, she founded the vegan, gluten-free ice cream shop with her husband, Michael, for selfish reasons. The Harwich native has not been able to eat dairy since 2012, and says, “I was missing the ice cream experience, especially in summer on Cape Cod.” As the couple has learned, she was far from the only one. And what may have started out as a self-serving move is bringing more joy to more people than they imagined when they started out.

While non-dairy ice cream options have proliferated in supermarkets to keep pace with the skyrocketing population of people eliminating dairy from their diets, either by choice or health necessity, let’s acknowledge right off the bat that the quality of many of the options suffers in comparison to their dairy counterparts. And in most ice cream shops, non-dairy selections are extremely limited. On top of that, buying a pint of vegan ice cream and eating it at home is not the same, Elizabeth points out, “as going to a location and getting a sundae, or getting a cone with soft-serve.”

Named for the Doucettes’ daughter, Isabelle, Sweet Izzy opened in July 2020. With seven core hard-pack and three soft-serve flavors, sundaes, banana splits, milkshakes, toppings and cones — all vegan, soy-free and gluten-free — Sweet Izzy brings the whole experience to everyone who was missing it. And the best part is you don’t have to be dairy- or gluten-free to enjoy Sweet Izzy, because the ice cream, cones and toppings are so delicious you won’t even think about what goes into them.

But for those who have to think about it… the ice cream is made from a base of certified gluten-free oat milk and coconut milk. Fudge sauce contains the same oat milk. Michael describes the cones, made on-site in a waffle iron, as a “work in progress,” but on a recent visit they hit all the notes for the ideal cone — great flavor, perfect crunch and the ability to stand up to the ice cream.

Elizabeth and Michael, who live in Denver with their three children and spend summers in Harwich with their extended families, are entirely self-taught as ice cream makers. Elizabeth studied holistic nutrition after she developed her dairy intolerance; Michael (also from Harwich) transitioned from a career in finance. “It took us over a year to perfect what we were trying to accomplish from a consistency, a mouthfeel, the overall ice cream experience,” Michael explains. “We wanted to keep very similar to traditional ice cream.”

Initially the couple used almond milk and coconut milk, but enough customers with nut allergies spoke up that Michael and Elizabeth looked for alternatives. They believe the oat milk/coconut milk combination provides the best consistency, flavor profile and mouthfeel while satisfying the most sensitive food restrictions. And as a bonus, oat production uses significantly less water than almonds, so it is more sustainable.

“If you ask people about their experience with ice cream, most people can come back to a specific ice cream story. At Sweet Izzy, so many people are having their first experience with ice cream cones, their first experience having a sundae and enjoying it as a family,” Michael says. “It’s so unbelievably gratifying to know that we’ve created something that so many people love; and they’re telling us. It’s not just ice cream for us. That’s what makes Sweet Izzy so special.”

Sweet Izzy
296 Route 28, Harwich Port
774-237-9649
sweet-izzy.business.site