Owner Jeff “Buzzy” Buzzelle stood behind the counter at JB’s Ice Cream Factory, listing each flavor the parlor offers.
Reminder Publishing photo by Peter Tuohy
EAST LONGMEADOW — East Longmeadow’s JB’s Ice Cream Factory is looking back on its history in town after 40 years of churning, scooping and serving authentic hard ice cream.
Jeff “JB” Brown opened the parlor in 1986 at 624 North Main St., which now stands as the longest running business in its plaza. Jeff “Buzzy” Buzzelle took over ownership and has continued the JB legacy and initial-namesake since 2013.
Ice cream lovers can find anywhere from 200-250 different flavors across a year, on top of sugar free ice cream, sherbet, frozen yogurt and non-dairy options.
The business features nearly 50 flavors of ice cream per month, with classic options like vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, or revolving flavors like caramel cider donut and blueberry golden Oreo.
Buzzelle said he’s even made an ice cream flavor out of every possible type of cookie.
The late JB’s wife, Peggy Brown, recalled when the parlor first opened its doors in East Longmeadow.
Peggy told Reminder Publishing JB used to work for her uncle, selling the bases used to make ice cream at other local shops before opening his own business. She said her uncle’s business provided the base for the original Friendly’s ice cream.
“He was going to buy the business, and it didn’t turn out to be a good time to buy,” Peggy said. “He would start people up in businesses with their mix and he says, ‘well, I can do that,’ so we started our own ice cream business.”
The couple got their lease early into the summer of 1986, but wasn’t officially open until October.
“By the time we got everything done, it was the end of the hot season for ice cream,” Peggy said. “We opened it up, a lot of people did private parties. That was the beginning of JB’s.”
Buzzelle became familiar with the business at a young age as a neighbor to the Browns and classmate of JB and Peggy’s daughter, Dawn Brown — who spent time at JB’s working for her father.
Buzzelle said it was always a joke between him and the Browns that he would eventually own the business because of the matching initials, and the joke eventually became a reality.
“I remember the talk was ‘JB’s, you’re gonna have to buy it’ but it was always just a joke,” Buzzelle said. “Then [Jeff Brown] was going to sell it. He asked me once and my first reaction was no because it wasn’t something I had ever even thought of. Then, I kind of peeled back to him when I was in my mind about, looking at what the next step of my life was gonna be.”
He said he didn’t know anything about making ice cream, but he knew he could run a business.
Buzzelle spent around two and a half months learning the ropes before officially taking the reins in December 2013. Dawn said her dad was all about consistency.
“That’s when I got the confidence and understood how to do all this,” Buzzelle said. “You try to make everything the same way every time. There’s signature flavors that people come in for, and when you’ve been eating something for 35 years and the flavor changes, you’re gonna notice.”
He spoke on the sentiment of going to an ice cream shop and the nostalgia surrounding it.
“It reminds you of being a kid,” Buzzelle said. “What I love most about this business is, you always get a great feeling when people come in and they talk about their parents bringing them in when they were kids. They’re in their 30s now, and they’re bringing their kids in here. You feel like you become a fabric of the community. You can’t help but feel like, this is why I wanted to do this.”
Buzzelle said JB’s original vision was a friendly, comfortable place to get ice cream, and he didn’t want to let JB down.
He added it’s bittersweet owning a business that has been a part of peoples’ lives for 40 years and that some don’t remember life without coming into JB’s for ice cream.
“When I bought this, I was looking at it as my last job,” Buzzelle said. “I wanted something I was going to be happy doing and something that was going to feel rewarding. When I said that people tell me how they came in here as a kid and now they’re bringing their kids, I anticipated things like that. It wasn’t until people tell you that, that you realize how much that drove you and how much it answered a missing piece. I think I’ve done a good job at continuing [JB’s] vision.”
Peggy said Buzzelle shares a lot of similarities with her husband in how they both wanted to connect to people in the community.
Buzzelle said he never goes a month without people asking about Jeff or telling him about their connection to him.
