The Queen City Creamery and Deli was the dream of Terry and Rick Michels long before it became a reality in Cumberland two years go. Both born and raised in Indiana, they grew up with ice cream stands and corner soda fountains as part of their "family traditions." But when they moved their family to Maryland in 1981, they had to travel several hours to find good old fashioned frozen custard, and they did! That is when they decided to open their own creamery.

The building that is now our home was originally constructed in 1908 as an office and apartment building. The last occupants were a foot doctor in the west side downstairs and a chiropractor in the west side upstairs. Both the upstairs and downstairs of the east side were apartments. After having been vacant for several years, the Michels family purchased the building in September, 2000, beginning a 20 month renovation project. The popular Cumberland pigeon roost was transformed from a gutted, dirt floored eyesore into it's present state.

In order to achieve the look of a 1940's era soda fountain, we tried to use many authentic items. The oak flooring is from a Mennonite church in Pennsylvania; the wainscoting on the front counter as well as the light globes are from the old Virginia Avenue School. The soda bar and back bar (built by Brunswick in the early 1900's) were in Kingwood,WV, but originally were from a Pennsylvania pharmacy (note the apothecary jars painted on the back bar) and sat 17 people. Our booths are local from Sam's Confectionary (that was next to the theatre on Virgina Avenue). It wasn't hard to come up with a name for the new venture as local history will document that the best ice cream in Cumberland was at the Queen City Dairy, but now it's at The Queen City Creamery!

Frozen custard is not the same as either soft-serve or hard ice cream. Frozen Custard is another name for "French Vanilla," or "New York Style" ice cream. Around 1900, the French developed a way to improve ice cream by reducing butterfat and adding a small amount of eggs. At about the same time, a carnival treat originated on Coney Island that was the rage of the East coast - Frozen Custard!

Genuine frozen custard contains by weight, a minimum of 10% butterfat and 1.4% egg yolks. The butterfat and the egg yolks produce that "old fashioned" gourmet flavor everyone loves.

Our Frozen Custard is smoother and creamier than ice cream because of the specialized equipment used to make it. One major ingredient in all ice cream is AIR! If there wasn't some air whipped into ice cream as it freezes, we'd have a solid block of rock hard ice cream. Over the years, ice cream makers have added more and more air to create a less dense (less satisfying) ice cream. The amount of air that is added results in "overrun." Our frozen custard has one fourth the overrun found in most ice creams. And the rapid freezing process produces smaller ice crystals, resulting in a smooth, creamy texture!

We make our frozen custard fresh every day -not days, weeks or months before it is served to you. That's why we offer only three flavors each day.