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Guilford Lake eatery to open all year

The Guilford Lake Dairy Bar owners Dave and Rhonda Hardesty said that with the addition of made-to-order pizza and a hot-food menu lineup they will operate the business year-round. Located at the state Route 172 and Hanna Drive corner, most of the summer ice cream treats will be sold along with hamburgers, hot dogs, fresh-cut fries, homemade batter-dipped fish and batter-dipped onion rings. Rhonda also owns Rhonda’s Dawggy Pawlor, a dog grooming center on East State Street in Salem. Customers can call in an order at 330-222-2002. The number on the sign in the photo is incorrect. (Salem News photo by Larry Shields)

GUILFORD LAKE — Ice cream in the winter?

Yes, and at the Guilford Lake Dairy Bar it also means a hot food menu added to the warm-weather summer treats.

Owners Dave and Rhonda Hardesty, who have operated the popular summer spot at 32260 state Route 172, at the corner of Hanna Drive, since March, said the business will remain open through the winter.

And along with the summertime treats, the dairy bar will serve made-to-order pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, fresh-cut fries, homemade batter-dipped fish and batter-dipped onion rings, and they expect to sell plenty of ice cream, milk shakes and flurries along the way.

It’s a new venture. Maybe a bit of an experiment, but isn’t that the way it is with any business?

“The biggest thing we have added,” Dave said, “is made-to-order pizza. We’re hoping …”

That hope is drawing from the customer bases including Guilford Lake, Hanoverton, Salem and Lisbon.

They’ve been selling pizza for a couple of weeks and from the results, “they’re happy that we started it,” said Rhonda, who also owns Rhonda’s Dawggy Pawlor, a dog grooming center in Salem.

This winter, four employees will serve ice cream flavors that include mint chocolate, strawberry, Superman, apple pie, pumpkin pie, Lake Erie Salt Mine and Buckeye Bliss — handcrafted ice cream, made by locally.

“We’ll be adding rum raisin,” Dave said, “there are a lot of older people who want it and can’t get it anywhere.”

The ice cream is supplied by Katie’s Korner Homemade Ice Cream’s Hubbard plant where the company says it is a niche supplier of gourmet ice cream and makes its own specially formulated ice cream mix, as well as a variety of ice creams, sherbets, sorbets and ice cream pies.

Each product is hand crafted and the company said, “We make our products — not just market them.”

The fresh food at the Guilford Dairy Bar fresh food is delivered by Atlantic Foods in Canton.

“We’re firm believers in using local products as much as possible,” Dave said.

Rhonda loves her “babies,” meaning her dogs, and buys a three-gallon tub of ice cream a month for her dog grooming business in Salem. She said any dogs that come to the Guilford Lake Dairy Bar will be treated to ice cream, vanilla only, “with a gourmet dog bone” that is all natural and grain free.

“It’s only vanilla and banana in the summer,” she said, “so they get their choice in the summer.”

Banana is unavailable during the winter, Dave said.

“Bring your baby (your dog) to the window and it will be waited on first when I’m here,” Rhonda said, underscoring her love and devotion to dogs.

The Guilford Lake Dairy Bar is operating under current winter hours and is open from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and from noon to 8 p.m. Friday through Sunday. It is closed on Monday.

Beginning April 1, it will be open from noon until 9 p.m. everyday.

For more information and to order, call 330-222-2002 or visit the Guilford Lake Dairy Bar on Facebook.

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