Mt. Gretna is located on the ancestral homelands of the Leanape people.

Date of Visit: September 14, 2025

Tucked away among the summer cottages of Mt. Gretna, a town in Lebanon County that also feels tucked away from the world, is a time capsule in the form of an ice cream parlor. 

It’s called the Jigger Shop, and it’s been a staple in the Lebanon Valley for more than 100 years.

I reviewed the Jigger Shop for my food blog, Berks County Eats, in 2016. Little has changed since then, just as little has changed in the decades before. 

At the busiest times, the line for ice cream extends well outside the restaurant, weaving its way onto the patio and out to the walkway that cuts through the grove. The hot food line is usually shorter, but that’s only because most of the wait is spent after ordering. 

The lines leave plenty of time to admire the decor inside the historic restaurant. The indoor space has a yellowish tint to it thanks to the overhead lights, faux-Tiffany lamps with glass in reds and yellows. Round tables with checkered tablecloths fill the middle of the room, making it hard to navigate with trays of food.

Stepping out onto the outdoor patio, you have to walk around large trees that rise up through the floor, the deck having been built around them to preserve shade and to help cool off those looking for a respite on a hot day. 

On our last visit, which came as part of our bike ride on the Lebanon Valley Rail Trail, was just for ice cream, a sweet treat to cap off our eight-mile ride. 

While our boys just had small dishes of ice cream, my wife and I shared a maple walnut sundae. 

One thing about the Jigger Shop is they don’t skimp on the servings. The ice cream was mounded up with a mountain of whipped cream on top (the cherry, unfortunately, fell off on the way to the seats). And there was a generous helping of delicious maple syrup-soaked walnuts. It was too good to stop eating, even if we were getting full by the end. 

But it’s their signature sundae, the Jigger, that lends its name to the restaurant. The Jigger is French vanilla ice cream topped with either chocolate or butterscotch, marshmallow, and Jigger nuts – their own “secret recipe” peanuts.

It comes served in a tall glass, and while the portion is quite the size of some of the other sundaes, it’s still more than enough for my wife and I to share. 

The hot food menu is fairly basic: hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, and other standard fare for a business that is an ice cream shop first. 

On a previous visit, I had a pork sandwich with sweet potato fries. The pulled pork was piled high in what was a good sandwich, though not as good as I’ve had at true BBQ joints. The sweet potato fries were very enjoyable, though. 

The charm of the Jigger Shop is in the nostalgia, though. It’s a 100-year-old ice cream parlor tucked away in a quiet little community. 

Oh, and the ice cream is pretty good, too.

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