Our story
A hundred years of doing it properly
Petersen’s has been making real ice cream since 1919 — first in Oak Park, Illinois, now in four shops across the Valley. The recipe book has changed hands and states. The rule it was founded on never has.
Who we are
The Petersen Ice Cream Company was founded in 1919 by H. P. Petersen. He had gathered his experience in candy and ice cream plants around Chicago — the last of them the Trail & Cooling Ice Cream Co. — before opening a factory and salesroom of his own at 1130 Lake Street, near Harlem Avenue, in Oak Park, Illinois. The notice in that Saturday’s Oak Leaves, 28 June 1919, promised all flavors in ice cream or sherbet, brick or bulk, delivered anywhere and everywhere promptly.
He founded the company on quality, and through several panics, the Great Depression and World War II he stuck to his motto: Quality First — Quantity Second. By mid-century Petersen’s was the family favorite in three towns, with counters on Chicago Avenue in Oak Park, West Lake Street in Austin and Longcommon Road in Riverside. H. P. stayed the guiding hand and president of the company, and his son Bill carried on the business of making real ice cream.
More than a hundred years later, that legacy lives on in Arizona.
Quality First — Quantity Second
Inspired by the history of the original company, Petersen’s was brought to Gilbert, Arizona with a vision of creating more than an ice cream shop — a place where families, friends and the community could gather and make memories together. The support that followed carried it further than one storefront: a second Gilbert shop, then Scottsdale, and now Peoria.
Along the way close friends joined together as business partners and owners. Built on friendship, trust and a shared love of the Petersen’s legacy, they run the shops the way H. P. ran his — handcrafted, in small batches, quality ahead of quantity, for families to enjoy for generations to come.
