It all started on the streets of Cincinnati in 1870. Louis Charles Graeter began selling ice cream. He successfully sold the treat out of two carts after hand-crafting it in French Pots.

After marrying in 1900, he and his new wife, Regina, moved to 967 E McMillan Street and started selling ice cream in the front of the store while making it in back. Shortly after being widowed in 1920, Regina left with two young sons and an ice cream business got to work. Despite the prejudices she faced, Regina surpassed all expectations of women at the time and ensured the business thrived under her care. In 1922 Regina opened a new ice cream parlor in Hyde Park and continued expansion from there.

It was around this time that other ice cream companies increased output with new mass-production methods for cheaper overhead, abandoning the traditional craft. Stubbornly, Regina decided to continue making ice cream the best way she knew how: in small-batch French Pots.

In 1900, Louis and Regina opened the doors to their first permanent home at 967 East McMillan Street in Walnut Hills. It was more than a store — it was a household. The family lived upstairs, made ice cream and candy in the back, and sold it to neighbors out front. From the very beginning, Graeter's was a family business in every sense of the word.

In 1919, tragedy struck when Louis Graeter was killed in a streetcar accident, leaving Regina widowed with two teenage sons, Wilmer and Paul — and a small but beloved ice cream business. It was a moment that could have ended everything. Instead, it became the beginning of something remarkable.

Around the time when women couldn't even vote, Regina Graeter took the helm of the business entirely on her own. Known simply as "the boss," she ran Graeter's for the next 36 years — outlasting the Great Depression, surviving WWII sugar rationing, and refusing to let hard times water down what made Graeter's special. She wasn't just keeping the lights on. She was building something that would outlast her.

In 1922, Regina opened a second location in Hyde Park, and Graeter's officially became a chain — Cincinnati-style. It was a bold move during uncertain times, but Regina had a gift for knowing when to push forward. The Hyde Park shop became a neighborhood institution, and it remains one of our most beloved locations to this day.

While the rest of the ice cream industry chased efficiency, Graeter's doubled down on craft. In 1934, at the absolute depths of the Depression, Regina made a move that surprised everyone: she purchased a factory on Reading Road in Mt. Auburn, consolidating all production under one roof. It was a contrarian bet — and it paid off for generations to come.

Even wartime sugar rationing didn't stop her. Regina kept production going because she believed ice cream could offer people a little happiness during troubling times. That philosophy has never left us.

Under the third generation, Graeter's began shipping ice cream beyond Cincinnati for the first time. What had always been a regional treasure was now finding its way to doorsteps across the Midwest. The idea was simple: if people couldn't come to us, we'd bring Graeter's to them. Packed in dry ice, shipped overnight — it was ice cream the hard way. And people loved it.

In 2002, Oprah Winfrey declared Graeter's "the best ice cream I ever tasted" — and the world took notice. Almost overnight, Cincinnati's best-kept secret became a national obsession. It was a turning point that proved what Graeter's fans had always known: some things are just worth doing the right way.