Our Story

So, who’s the real Dr. Mike, and how does he make such sweet and creamy ice cream?

We get asked that question just about every day. Some longtime customers know the real story: Dr. Mike’s Ice Cream was named for a dentist, Dr. Michael S. Burnham, whose daughter, Mary Burnham, and her partner, Peter Seltzer, opened the store in 1975.

They built what was – and still is – the world’s smallest ice cream factory in the rear of the old Knights of Columbus lodge in the heart of downtown Bethel. Things weren’t very fancy at first: Change was made from an old cigar box, and customers lined up in what was then a dusty dirt parking lot to taste the super-premium, high butterfat ice cream that Peter made in a noisy, inefficient, chain-driven Emery Thompson batch freezer.

Peter made the tastiest ice cream around – in fact People magazine ranked his Rich Chocolate tops in the United States in 1981 – but his passion was not in the kitchen. A fledgling artist, he preferred painting to making ice cream, and in fact kept only a small stack of buckets in which to put the day’s creations. When the ice cream was gone, he’d close the store. But the customers kept coming and demanding more – especially a new concoction Peter called Chocolate Lace – and soon Peter’s hobby had turned into a seven-day-a-week job.

Enter Robert Allison. The Massachusetts native owned the nearby Redding Ridge Market and was one of Peter’s wholesale customers. Robert saw how quickly pints and quarts were snatched from his freezer when Peter made a delivery to his store, and in 1982 he offered to buy Dr. Mike’s. Peter, growing weary of being stuck in the kitchen making ice cream, struck a deal with Robert which included a guarantee of free ice cream for life for Peter. Robert got the keys to the store and the cigar box, but most importantly the secret recipes to Dr. Mike’s ice cream.

Robert did the impossible: He sourced his ice cream mix from a secret dairy in Massachusetts and began making more flavorful ice cream, headlined, of course, by Chocolate Lace. The brittle dark chocolate and caramel treat, invented by Steve Bray at his candy factory in Bethel, found its way into the ice cream accidentally. The candy came off the assembly line at Steve’s factory in large sheets, but occasionally ragged chunks broke off. Steve didn’t just want to throw away the broken candy – he called it “scrap” – but he wasn’t sure what to do with it. One day, while getting a cone at Dr. Mike’s, he saw Peter Seltzer in the back room offloading a bucket of sweet cream from his machine, and asked if he could bring him some Chocolate Lace to mix in.

A star was born, and the rest, as they say, is history. It is impossible to estimate how many hundreds of thousands of gallons of Chocolate Lace has been sold but suffice it to say quite a few.

Robert saw the growth potential of Dr. Mike’s and opened new locations on Main Street in Ridgefield, where he maintained a second production factory, and on Route 25 in the Stepney section of Monroe. Both stores developed huge followings as people came from all over the Northeast to try what foodies Jane and Michael Stern once proclaimed, “the best ice cream on Earth.”

Robert ran all three stores by himself, shuttling ice cream in the back of his Volvo station wagon from the “world headquarters” in Bethel, as he fondly called it, to the other two stores, numerous area restaurants, and other wholesale locations. Eventually the pace became too much, and Robert sold off the Ridgefield store. In 2013 he sold the Monroe store, but continued providing his ice cream to the new owners.

Retirement beckoned to Robert in 2020, 38 years after he purchased Dr. Mike’s. The next generation Dr. Mike, and only the shop’s third owner, is Ridgefield resident David Nussbaum. He and his wife, Lynn, took possession of the store, the secret ice cream recipes (now numbering approximately 150 flavors), a new and much more efficient Emery Thompson batch freezer, and a cash register (the old cigar box has long since been replaced). Brimming with energy and fresh ideas, the Nussbaums want to put Dr. Mike’s famous ice cream in more locations throughout Connecticut and eastern New York. They’ve already launched a line of T-shirts and hats and are planning to remodel the store in winter 2020-21 – its first cosmetic overhaul since 1988. Most importantly, they pledge to make the same high quality ice cream that Peter and Robert made before them.

Dr. Mike’s Ice Cream has been a Bethel institution for 45 years. We sincerely thank our many customers, employees, and fans of all ages for helping us prosper. Here’s to another 45 years!