Something that many of us probably don't know is that Mary Jean owns the Washtenaw Dairy with her husband, John. She was running the business with her 90-year-old uncle, Doug Raab, when he died in 2016 and she took it on. With a long career in the hospitality and restaurant business, including with Bill Knapp’s and later when she helped to establish hundreds of Borders Books cafes, she said “I feel like I’ve been training for this for a long time.”
The dairy has been around since 1934 and was originally one of 120 Ann Arbor area independent milk bottlers and distributors. Still on South Ashley St. on the city’s old west side, it was a landmark for the 1950’s kids we once were and it still is, a mandatory and nostalgic stop for many class members, both some locals and those of us just visiting from the faraway places where many of us live now. As Pamela Conn Hyde, a longtime Florida resident, says, “A trip to Ann Arbor is never complete without a visit to the Dairy”.
There are 50 flavors of ice cream now, including many we couldn’t have imagined— Caramel Pretzel Crunch, Raspberry Chip Cheesecake, Peanut Butter Moose TRAXX, to name just three—back in the days when our parents drove us down to the Dairy, often as a treat on a Sunday afternoon, summer or winter. Susan Magid Bergin has memories of “visiting here with Daddy who loved his chocolate ice cream even in the winter”.
Some families have had four generations of ice cream lovers coming to the Dairy and one loyal customer has been coming six days a week since 1981! Cherie Olsen Major calls it the “best ice cream in Ann Arbor” and Barbara DeHart Eadie added, “My brother and his kids are some of their best customers!”
You can hear Mary Jean in a radio interview from November 23, 2020, talking about the Dairy’s history in ice cream and also about their famous donuts made in-house, with 100 dozen going out the door every day. She’s justifiably proud of the fact that the Washtenaw Dairy donates and supports many community endeavors, projects, and not-for-profit schools and service organizations.
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