Nothing screams summer like ice cream dripping down your child’s chin, straight onto that brand-new shirt that you thought would be perfect for family photos. The ice cream is green (that’s why it’s called “Dog Puke”), the shirt is white, and… yep, your Tide stick is bone dry.
But your kid’s smile is so big that you don’t even care.
Summer in Midland isn’t about perfection. It’s about play. And part of playing is making a mess.
The Broderick boys are all about making a mess—especially if it involves ice cream. This is one of the reasons why we love Great Lakes Ice Cream so much. Anyone can peddle vanilla soft serve in a cup (heck, some restaurants give it away for free).
But Great Lakes mashes up green ice cream with homemade sugar cookie dough, calls it “Dog Puke,” and my kids go nuts. Their eyes light up with a kind of joy that every parent recognizes: This is SO FUN!
Fun to eat, fun to drip halfway down your arm, and especially fun if it’s in one of the Great Lakes homemade waffle cones. This, to me, is what really separates great ice cream places from average ones. It’s easy to mass-order a bunch of pre-made waffle cones. That’s how most places do it. But Great Lakes isn’t most places. When you commit to making your own waffle cones in-house, that tells me you are SERIOUS about ice cream!
Of course, the shop is family-owned. There’s no other way to offer such a genuine experience.
If you can’t get past the title of their green-sugar-cookie concoction, you’ll love some of their other flavors, named after iconic Michigan things like Pictured Rocks, Saltmine Detroit, and Copper Country. Every flavor is made in-store, and they use local ingredients to support our farmers and suppliers. As a Midland resident and realtor, I love to see my city flourish in this way.
For the record, this isn’t a paid ad. We genuinely love this place and I’m not being paid to say any of this. But like, real talk? If someone from Great Lakes Ice Cream happens to see this, I’ll trade marketing for Dog Puke. I’ll have to pick up some new kids’ shirts, but I’ll also be Mother of the Year. HMU.