Only a five-minute walk from Pioneer Park and 10 minutes from the school, students have a brand-new ice cream place to visit on hot days after school and during the summer.  

Lick Homemade Ice Cream is located in a former barber shop and hopes to offer the experience of a classic ice cream shop to the downtown Puyallup community. 

Owner and manager Heidi Kinne says the idea for the shop had been gestating for a long time. 

“My husband and I kind of talked about it about 10 years ago, but we just couldn’t make it work at the time,” Kinne said. “But it’s always kind of been in the back of our heads so fast forward and here we are.”  

Kinne says the aims for the shop is to provide ice cream that is organic and delicious, with plans to rotate through a variety of flavors. 

“We’re using a local dairy currently,” Kinne said. “[The ice cream is] like a mixture of milk, cream and cane sugar, so we’re not using corn syrup in anything. And we have a commercial machine. So, it’s really just figuring out what we want to make and what those ingredients are.”  

Kinne says she hopes that the quality ingredients, combined with the homemade feel of the shop will keep visitors coming back throughout the year. 

“I really just want it to be a cool spot for the kids to kind of come to hang out. We’re gonna have Red Bull spritzers, [we] created this Red Bull Frost is what they’re calling it. And it’s basically a blended spritzer but blended with sorbet… we just want to be a cool, fun spot that the community wants to be a part of, and we want to be a huge part of the community,” Kinne said. 

The building’s design attracted Kinne to the location, with huge windows and lots of brick on the wall. Combined with the proximity to Pioneer Park, the shop will likely attract crowds of people during the summer months.  

“I loved the building. I love the brick, that really was probably my favorite. I wish there was more brick in it, but we definitely wanted to keep the brick. I loved this big sliding glass door… It’s just fun to people watch and everyone’s walking their dogs, being friendly, downtown with their kids and strollers going to the park and who doesn’t want ice cream when you’re going to the park?” Kinne said. 

Kinne says she has big plans for the business, hoping to become a hub for the downtown community. 

“Hopefully we’ll just be busy and continue to grow and kind of build it up within the community as a support for the community and somewhere for everyone to kind of come and hang out,” Kinne said.

You can visit Lick at 105 2nd Street SW, Puyallup, WA 98371. The shop is open Wednesday through Friday from 1-9pm, Saturday from 12-9pm, and Sunday from 12-6pm.