Aglamesis Brothers

My strongest visual impression of the Aglamesis Brothers ice cream parlor in Cincinnati was the overwhelming pinkness of the place - not as retina-assaultingly pink as the Barbie aisle at Toys R Us, but close.

Actually, the first thing I noticed was that everything looked old - genuinely old, not "olde time in a kit" old.


Thomas and Nicholas Aglamesis, originally of Greece, opened this location in 1913. Along with lots of Portuguese marble, they used Tiffany lamps...


...tile floors...


...and sculptured ceilings.


James T. Aglamesis, Thomas' son, took over the business in the 1950s, and today, members of the third generation of the Aglamesis family work with him. Although some renovation has taken place over the years, most of the interior is original.


Early on, candy-making was added to the business, as Ace Jackalope discovered.


Aglamesis Brothers has national reputation for quality in both its ice cream and candy, and has been written up in such publications as The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, Bon Appetite and Chocolatier magazine. It also regularly wins "Best of City" awards. Cincinnati Magazine said of their candy, "...all Aglamesis sweets are enrobed in thick, lustrous chocolate as satiny as Jean Harlow's dressing gown." I didn't try the candy, but that's some evocative prose.


The parlor is in a pleasantly old neighborhood, as you can see in the reflections in the front window. The location is Oakley Square, 3046 Madison Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45209. They have newer location at Montgomery Square, 9899 Montgomery Road, Cincinnati, OH 45242, but we only checked out the first one.

What did I think of the ice cream? I'm no connoisseur, but I liked it, as did other customers.


This was, I am told, a banana chip single dip with a chocolate dipped sprinkle cone.


"Was", being the operative word.


Apparently, some sort of critter outside gets treated, too - in a pink bowl, under pink flowers, of course.


How do we find these places? We research, we listen, we get lucky.

In this case, we were pointed to Aglamesis Brothers by a page at the impressively comprehensive site, agilitynut.com. Thanks, Debra Jane!