Beloved Mount Clemens ice cream shop, landmark goes up for sale
MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - Community members call Miller Bros. Creamery a fixture of Mount Clemens, and now, it is on the market.
"It would be super sad to see it go," says one resident who stopped by the local landmark with her family on Monday night.
Owner Glenn Deceuninck welcomed Santa Claus to the ice cream shop Monday night. Saint Nicholas' visit to Miller Bros. Creamery marks five years in a row, the amount of time Deceuninck and his wife Tiffany have owned the shop.
The listing also comes after the passing of the former, longtime owner Irene Szlachtowicz, who died in October.
Szlachtowicz immigrated to the U.S. in 1954. She needed employment and similar to most jobs, it was all about who you know, not what you know.
"Her friend said come on up to Miller Bros. and Irene's like, I can't even speak English, and her friend said it doesn't matter, you're just scooping ice cream," Deceuninck said.
He said it was the scooping ice cream that eventually got her into a manager role and then to the owner after London Dairy, the company that bought Miller Brothers in 1971, went out of business.
"Irene continued to work for London Dairy until they went out of business in 1982 and then they offered this store to Irene," Deceuninck said.
He says it took Szlachtowicz a decade to pay London Dairy back for the shop. She worked there until she was 93 before selling it to Deceuninck, who was nothing more than a friend and frequent customer, in 2018.
He and his wife are looking to move south, away from the cold to start a different chapter of their own.
"To carry on the history of this place for all the customers that come in here and say that they came in here when they were 5 years old, and they're in their 70s now," he added.
The property at 149 Dickinson St. is currently listed for $300,000.