On warm summer evenings in Santa Cruz, excited kids, stoned college students, and sentimental old-timers gather outside the squat red building on Ocean Street to lick ice cream cones. Marianne’s Ice Cream, which first opened in 1947 by Tom and Lenore Becker with just 13 flavors, has become an institution known for its extensive and unique selection of flavors.
When you arrive at Marianne’s, you grab a number from the ticket machine and listen for your number to be called. The dozens of flavors are posted on little signs wrapping the length of the wall behind the counter. Once you’ve made your incredibly difficult decision, you order and then proceed to the dining room with red checkerboard tiles to enjoy it.
Aside from gossiping teens and toddlers with sticky fingers, you may also spot someone doggedly scratching at the dancing cow-printed wallpaper. That’s because it’s rumored to be scratch-and-sniff, a rumor that co-owner Charlie Wilcox said he believes originated with first-year students at UC Santa Cruz but one that he cannot confirm or deny.
When the Beckers first opened Marianne’s, their goal was to put their children through college in the post-war years. They named it after their daughters, Mary and Anne. Lenore made the ice cream, and the whole family helped run the shop.
Marianne’s changed hands in 1955, but it was the next owners, Sam and Dorothy Lieberman, who made the shop the ice cream institution it is today. In the more than 50 years that Sam ran the shop, he expanded Marianne’s selection of flavors from 13 to 75, inventing weird and wonderful new flavors along the way.
While Sam developed wacky flavors, Dorothy pitched the Marianne’s brand to local restaurants, offering to create new flavors on request. Today, Marianne’s ice cream can be found at about 400 scoop shops, restaurants, and grocery stores in and around the Bay Area.
In 2012, Marianne’s was sold to Kelly Dillon and Charlie Wilcox, who have honored Sam’s legacy by changing almost nothing about Marianne’s. They have even opened new locations and introduced their own ice cream brands, but they remain focused on preserving the quality of the product.
The quality of Marianne’s ice cream, made with 16% butterfat and the “magical” Santa Cruz air, has kept customers coming back for 76 years. Marianne’s has become a place for family traditions and holds a special place in the hearts of many.
While Charlie and Kelly hope to continue running Marianne’s for many more years, they also hope that the shop will continue to thrive long after they are gone. They are proud to carry on the legacy started by the Beckers and continued by Sam, and they hope that future owners will feel the same passion for Marianne’s.