The second location of Summerhill ice cream shop Big Softie opens this summer in Poncey-Highland. According to an Instagram announcement, the soft serve ice cream parlor, owned by Sarah O’Brien of Little Tart Bakeshop, is taking over the retail space beside Colette Bread on North Highland Avenue.
“Soft serve is so nostalgic for me. I grew up a mile down the road from the local Dairy Queen in a small farm town in Ohio,” O’Brien told Eater Atlanta in 2019 of opening Big Softie. “When the weather warmed up, my mom would take us there on Friday nights.”
Big Softie opened on Georgia Avenue in 2019, adjacent to Little Tart Bakeshop in Summerhill. The shop carries core flavors like vanilla, chocolate, and matcha, as well as a seasonal flavor and sorbet. While all ice creams are made using organic cane sugar and local dairy milk, a vegan vanilla soft serve is made with oat milk. Toppings include everything from sprinkles and crunch pearls to chunks of crispy honeycomb and pink pralines. Hardshell coatings of chocolate, strawberry, and dulce are also available.
Big Softie joins Colette Bread bakery and The Zero Co. already open at the Poncey-Highland complex. Baker Sarah Dodge opened Colette Bread last year, capping the eastern end of the tiny retail strip once known as Highland Row beside the former Highland Inn. The complex is also home to the nonalcoholic bottle shop The Zero Co., owned by the team behind Elemental Spirits bottle shop. The Zero Co. caps the western end of the petite shopping center.
Both the retail spaces at the complex and the hotel are currently under renovation, with the iconic inn set to become Otto’s Apartment Hotel offering short- and long-term leases.
