New ice cream shop opens near Golden Hill State Park in Barker

Photos by Ginny Kropf: Nova Popovich watches as his wife Angie hands his sister-in-law Marietta Popovich an ice cream cone Marietta lives just down the street from Nova and Angie and their new Lower Lake Creamery.

BARKER – When Nova and Angie Popovich were looking to start a new business, they knew their new home at 9848 Lower Lake Rd. would be the perfect place for an ice cream shop.

It was in the country, near Lake Ontario and far from the fast pace of the city where they used to live.

On July 23, the couple opened Lower Lake Creamery and they couldn’t be happier with their first week in business.

Nova and Angie formerly lived in Cheektowaga, where he ran a machine shop serving the aerospace industry and she was in real estate. When the pandemic hit in 2020, both of their businesses came to a standstill.

They had purchased a new home on Lower Lake Road, which had a mother-in-law apartment and the first thing they did was transform that into an airbnb for a short-term rental.

“We were looking to restructure after Covid, and since the site previously had a snack shop, which had burned, we knew the plot was zoned for retail use,” Angie said. “We love this neighborhood and started thinking how we could stay here and give back to the community. Since everyone loves ice cream, we decided to build an ice cream shop.”

Angie said the inspectors were still there at 4 p.m. on July 22 and the couple opened at noon the next day.

Since then, they have gotten busier and busier. A lot of traffic comes from Golden Hill Campground just kitty-corner across the street.

Nova’s brother Paul and sister-in-law Marietta live nearby and are in there all the time, Marietta said. They love the ice cream.

On Saturday night, Ken and Ann Nice from Knowlesville saw the Creamery on Facebook and drove over for ice cream.

Nova said people like to sit at a picnic table, relax and have a pop or ice cream.

The Creamery sells Perry’s Ice Cream and soft serve. They offer shakes, floats, freezes, cones and sundaes.

“Everything is made to order,” Nova said.

Ken Nice of Knowlesville enjoys his milkshake while Nova Popovich makes another for Ken’s wife Ann.

A sundae bar allows customers to make their own sundaes with soft ice cream.

They also sell pop and water in bottles, which are popular with the campers, Angie said.

The Lower Lake Creamery is open from noon to 8 p.m. seven days a week. They plan to play it by ear as to how long they will be open after the campground closes.

They have a plan to expand and add more features, but aren’t ready to announce it yet.

Lower Lake Creamery is located at 9848 Lower Lake Rd., just a few hundred feet west of the entrance to Golden Hill.