Pom Pom

When one kid at the table can't do dairy and the other won't be talked out of Cookies and Cream, Pom Pom is the Thornbury stop where neither has to settle. The bright treat hut on Bruce Street runs on a plain idea: dairy, plant-based, and nut-free ice cream sharing one counter, with nobody handed the lesser version. A few minutes from the Georgian Bay shoreline, it scoops the vegan flavours off the same window as the classics and keeps the dairy-free options on a standing list — not a single token tub rotated in when a guest asks, but a fixed set a table can actually order across.

The flavour board rewards reading. Cookies and Cream and Mint Flake both sit on the always-available vegan list, alongside Chocolate, Vanilla, Triple Berry, and Birthday Cake — enough range that a plant-based order is a real decision, not a default. The dairy side runs just as deep: Salted Caramel, Butter Pecan, Black Cherry, White Chocolate Raspberry, and house oddities like Crouching Tiger Tail and the Double Double. Recent boards have carried Strawberry Cheesecake and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. Past the cone there are floats, ice cream sandwiches, Wheelie Pops for the smallest hands, and pints to take home. The fixed list is the backbone; the features carry the day's personality, so the board is worth a scan before anyone defaults to the safest classic.

The cake counter is what turns a summer habit into a plan. Pom Pom keeps ice cream cakes stocked and takes custom orders, so a birthday, a cottage weekend, or a group that can't agree on a single flavour has a structured version of the same treat. It's the move when a cone run is too loose to organize a real occasion around. Gift cards and pints fill in the rest, and the whole catalogue scales from a one-scoop walk-up to a freezer order for a crowd.

What separates Pom Pom from the average seasonal stand is how far the allergy-awareness goes. Staff are trained on handling, products are labelled, and the nut-free promise reads as an operating rule rather than a courtesy. That focus is the tell — this is a scoop shop run by people who decided early that a child with an allergy, or a guest who eats plant-based, should get the whole menu instead of a workaround. The honest caveat travels with it: a shared food environment can't guarantee zero cross-contact, so a strict allergy still calls for a word with whoever is working the window.

The shop has roots. Rheanna Kish and Andrea Greyerbiehl opened the Thornbury hut in 2015, after the town lost a beloved ice cream shop and left a gap on a main street that fills every summer. By local accounts, the two grew the brand from that single window into something larger — a production and retail base in nearby Meaford that runs year-round, a wholesale line of pints, and placements on other businesses' menus around the region. A sustainability streak runs through the operation, from sourcing to packaging. What began as filling a hole in Thornbury now reaches well past it, from the Meaford counter to freezer shelves across the area.

None of that changes how the Thornbury hut is meant to be used. It's a walk-up: order at the window, drift to the outdoor ping-pong table or the painted mural while the cone is scooped, with the harbourfront a short stroll off. The bright summer-stand picture is real, but it undersells what's behind it — a year-round kitchen in Meaford, a wholesale freezer reaching other counters, and a flavour list built so that nobody at the window has to ask what they're allowed to have.