Aunt Ebby’s – Better than Going to Your Favorite Aunt’s House
Have you ever driven by a store or restaurant dozens of times but never stopped in to give it a try. We’ve been taking St. George Island beach vacations for nearly 20 years and probably driven by Aunt Ebby’s hundreds of times, but we’ve never stopped to have ice cream at Aunt Ebby’s. Normally, when we go need an ice cream fix, we always go to the Old Time Soda Fountain in Apalachicola (you can check out our Soda Fountain blog here). However, we decided to finally stop at Aunt Ebby’s, and we left thinking, “What in the world have we been waiting for?”
Aunt Ebby’s is located at 147 E Gulf Beach Dr east of the SGI Trading Post and where Dail’s seafood trailer is typically parked. If you make it to Subway, you’ve gone too far. The hours at Aunt Ebby’s can vary depending on the season so make you sure you check the Aunt Ebby’s Facebook page or give them a call. It’s tough to miss Aunt Ebby’s pink and blue painted exterior though.
Aunt Ebby’s is located on the second floor of the pink and blue building. As you climb the stairs to get to the entrance, you are greeted with a sign that says “You Have Just Climbed off 1 Scoop Worth of Calories.”
We walked inside and ordered our ice cream. Aunt Ebby’s sells ice cream from Blue Bell and has cones, milk shakes, floats and sundaes…that’s it. They know what they focus on and they stick to it. For the size of the cones, the prices are fair too.
As is always the case, it got a little hectic once we walked in. Our kids are always indecisive when it comes to their ice cream. Finally we landed on our final choices: Krista had the cookies & cream and cookie dough, Kaylee had salted caramel and cookie dough, Liliana had salted caramel and moose tracks, I had the moose tracks and Brody was very proud of his mint chocolate chip.
After getting our ice cream, everyone walked outside to enjoy it. Out on the deck, Aunt Ebby’s has several Adirondack chairs where you can sit and enjoy the view of the beach on St. George Island.
While everyone else was outside, I got a chance to meet Jason and Julie, the 3rd owners of Aunt Ebby’s. Aunt Ebby’s has been a staple on St. George Island since 1993. Jason and Julie sold everything in Tennessee and moved to St. George Island and took over in April 2019. Jason and Julie are super people, and we got a chance to talk about how they were doing during the recent Coronavirus vacation rental shutdown. Just before the shutdown in March, they were on pace to have their best month ever, but then Governor DeSantis shut down vacation rentals and this hurt the business significantly. Now that things have reopened, things are picking back up thankfully (for more info on the vacation rental ban check out our blog here).
Jason and Julie even told us the story of how the name came about. The original owner’s (Mark) parents were devout Catholics and were very strict. When Mark was growing up he’d say that going to his Aunt Ebby’s was a treat like eating ice cream, and, eventually, Mark opened an ice cream shop on St. George Island named after his favorite aunt.
While writing this blog and reminiscing about our time at Aunt Ebby’s Liliana said, “That was the best ice cream place ever!” Aunt Ebby’s was great and is a must stop on your trip to SGI. Go there, burn some calories and have a treat! Make sure you check out their website too.
