Sweet life
By Liz Barry on Aug. 05, 2009
(434) 385-5524
This week, The Burg takes you to three sweet spots in the Lynchburg area. These family-run businesses serve up hefty sugar buzzes and plenty of charm to go around.
Shell’s Ice Cream & More
Though Shell’s Ice Cream & More is barely larger than a trailer, it’s virtually impossible to miss it while driving down 12th Street.
Outside, the walls are painted pumpkin orange, and the windows are trimmed in buttercup yellow. Rainbow-colored lanterns hang from the awning, and plastic flowers and dragonflies accent the windows.
“This area of Lynchburg is so gloomy,” says owner Michele Pankey, who opened the restaurant in July.
Pankey’s T-shirt is as bright as the orange walls. She can barely hold back a smile as she talks about the restaurant, which offers nine flavors of hand-dipped ice cream, a smattering of desserts, and full lunch and dinner menus.
“I’ve wanted to do it all my life,” she says with a laugh, recounting her early years growing up in the country, making mud pies.
Her shop was born of the recession. Last year, Pankey was laid off from her job as a manager at LabCorp. She had a tough time finding a job, so she decided to take a chance on the ice cream store instead of waiting for the right opportunity to come along.
Pankey has a background in business and restaurant management from Virginia Tech. She lives in Nelson County and chose Lynchburg because she had family members living in the area and saw potential on 12th Street.
Shell’s Ice Cream & More gives Pankey a chance to put her business skills to the test and share her culinary creations with others. And she’s not shy about her food. She says you haven’t eaten a cookie until you’ve tried her 10-inch chocolate chip walnut cookies.
Though Shell’s Ice Cream & More is billed as an ice cream shop first and foremost, the “& More” cannot be overstated. In addition to cheesecakes, pies, muffins and cookies, Pankey has created a full lunch/dinner menu, with items like baby back ribs, barbecue pork, Western burgers, salads, chicken and more. She plans to pare down the options once she gets a better sense of the most popular items.
Since Shell’s Ice Cream is more a hut than a full-sized restaurant, diners should plan to take their food on the road or eat in the screened-in gazebo in the parking lot.
Business has been sporadic so far, but that’s to be expected. Pankey has been walking the street with fliers, getting to know the locals and small business owners.
“I want them to know I’m here.”
Shell’s Ice Cream & More is located at 2100 12th St. It’s open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and from 1 to 7 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call (434) 444-2736.
Fabulus-Fudge
The “Fudgedae” is dangerously decadent, even by Fabulus-Fudge standards: two layers of soft ice cream, one layer of fudge, served in an edible sugar cone.
And it’s the decadence that makes Fabulus-Fudge so fabulous.
Fabulus-Fudge was opened three years ago by former banker Jacque Davis and her husband Mark.
Jacque bakes 36 flavors from scratch, developing each recipe by trial and error. Her latest creation is peach fudge.
At any given time, there are 20-plus blocks of fudge in the glass display case, with names that make the taste buds water: dark chocolate, maniac mint, bada bing cherry, strawberry dream.
When the shop opened three years ago, fudge was the only item on the menu. Since then, the Davises have expanded to cakes, cookies, cupcakes, coffee, milkshakes and smoothies for dessert, and corn dogs or hotdogs for lunch.
In the spring, the couple acquired the mini golf course on Timberlake Road next door, Tiny Town Golf, a Hill City institution since the 1940s. Between the two businesses is a pavilion with picnic tables and piped-in oldies music playing around the clock.
Jacque took an unlikely path to the fudge business. For years, she worked in the bank — a secure job with regular hours. In her spare time, she would bake fudge and create new flavors, then bring in samples to the bank for her customers to taste.
Three years ago, Mark surprised Jacque with the fudge shop for her birthday. Now, she works 12- to 13-hour days, but loves it.
“Even though it’s a lot of hours, it’s not as stressful.”
Each year, the fudge has been catching on more, Jacque says. Holidays are especially busy. Last Christmas, she made 105 trays of fudge, which comes out to more than 600 pounds.
“Just to see some someone taste the fudge and go ‘mmmm,’ to me, that’s makes it all worth while.”
Fabulus Fudge is located at 7423 Timberlake Road. It is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and from 1 to 9 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call (434) 239-3962.
Woodruff’s Café and Pie Shop
Mama Woodruff might be 92, but she can still bake a mean fried pie.
Each morning, she fires up the stove and fries up biscuit dough filled with fresh apples, peaches, berries or other fillings. By day’s end, they’re almost always gone.
The small, whitewashed restaurant in Monroe is a gathering place for locals, and a respite for travelers passing through the area. It is owned by Angie Scott, who is kept company by her mother, Mary Fannie Woodruff, aka “Mama Woodruff” — a fixture in the shop.
“A lot of people just want to talk. They get some coffee and a piece of pie, we’ll have people who sill stay for hours if they can,” Scott says.
The history runs deep for the owner of the family-run cafe. Scott’s great-grandfather, Wyatt Woodruff, was a former slave who became the first black business owner in Amherst County. He opened a blacksmith shop across the street.
From 1951 to 1982, the cafe was Woodruff’s Cash Grocery, a country store selling everything from hog feed to milk to socks. Mary Fannie ran the store until it was no longer able to compete with the chain supermarkets. It sat empty for years, except for a brief stint as a fish market during the 1980s.
In 1998, Mary Fannie’s daughter, Angie Scott decided to open a small café and store, which later became the pie shop.
Woodruff’s Café and Pie Shop holds remnants of its past life: a rusty metal scale, a massive adding machine, black and white photos of family.
The pies change with seasons, sweet potato and pumpkin in the winter, fruit pies in the summer. Scott bakes from scratch with fresh and often-local ingredients. Right now, she uses peaches from nearby Morris Orchard.
“I just have a real hard time pouring something out of a can,” Scott says. “ And Mama always said, ‘if you sell somebody something, make sure you give ’em a full measure.’”
Mama Woodruf chimes in, “Give ’em what they paid for.”
Woodruf’s Café and Pie Shop is located at 3297 Elon Road in Monroe. The hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. For more information, call (434) 384-1650.
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