I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream, but there’s no need for screaming anymore with two new ice cream shops opening in LaGrange.

Scoops, located at Lafayette Center on Lafayette Parkway, opened June 1, while Sugermeyer’s Sweet Shop and Ice Cream Parlor on Main Street opened July 4. Both offer a wide variety of ice cream flavors, plus individual specialities such as homemade cinnamon rolls and shaved ice.

On their first date, Deanna Sugermeyer kidded her future husband that with a name like Sugermeyer, he ought to open a candy store.

“We’ve joked about it all our lives,” Dave Sugermeyer said.

After 28 years of marriage, they decided to go ahead and start scooping ice cream.

The couple, along with their daughters Tiffany and Amanda, moved to LaGrange in 2006 after three hurricanes damaged their home in Florida.

“We were tired of rebuilding our house. Tiffany was getting ready to start LaGrange College, and Amanda was going into middle school. It was a good time for a move,” he said.

During a visit to LaGrange where former neighbors had moved, the family decided to make the move north. They brought their marine finance business with them and while settling into life in a new city, they still occasionally talked about opening a candy store.

“When this spot on the square became available it felt like the right town, the right location,” Dave Sugermeyer said.

Opening the store was a family project and currently they are the only four employees doing everything from picking flavors of ice cream to mopping floors.

Sugermeyer’s Sweet Shop and Ice Cream Parlor has 24 flavors of Blue Bell ice cream – the third largest-selling ice cream in the country – along with packaged candy, fudge, homemade cookies and cinnamon rolls and handmade milk shakes. Currently, the best selling ice cream is Cookies and Cream.

“We’re about all things yummy,” he said.

Randy Atkins, along with his business partner Donald Barnes, opened Scoops in June after five years of selling Hawaiian Shaved Ice.

“Ever since we started the shaved ice business, people have been asking us for a permanent location,” Atkins said. “A year ago we decided to do it.”

Atkins quit his job as human resources manager at American Home Shield a year ago to concentrate on the shaved ice business and getting the ice cream store up and running.

He did his ice cream research, including attending a national ice cream retailers convention, and chose to sell the award-winning premium ice cream from the Ice Cream Club.

“It’s good ice cream,” he said.

Along with 32 ice cream flavors, the store offers customers Italian ice and 24 flavors of shaved ice.

“You ought to be able to find something you like in here,” Atkins said.

The store also has nachos and Nathan’s hot dogs for sale, as well as fresh-squeezed lemonade, smoothies and handmade milk shakes. The best-selling ice cream at Scoops has been Caramel Caribou, a toffee ice cream with caramel and chocolate.

“We’ve got a family atmosphere here. You can eat inside or outside while you enjoy a treat,” he said.

Both stores expect to add products in the coming weeks. Scoops will offer story time, free wi-fi and fresh baked cookies. Sugermeyer’s will offer homemade brownies, cakes and pies, as well as growing the selection of nostalgia candy.

Sherri Brown can be reached at sbrown@lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 240.