For Chris McKellar, founder of Love’s Ice Cream & Chocolate, creating homemade ice cream began as a fun way to treat his friends and family. After he grew and sold a web development company, he decided to pursue a culinary degree at GRCC. As an accomplished chef and inherently creative foodie, he enjoyed crafting various flavors of ice cream out of his home kitchen. It was the delighted approval of those lucky enough to taste those early creations that spurred him on to build what we now know as Love’s Ice Cream & Chocolates.
Originally, Love’s was going to be called Ruby’s, after Chris’ oldest daughter. The McKellars, however, have two daughters, and to be fair, they decided to pivot from Ruby’s to Love’s, keeping the apostrophe ‘s’ as a nod to their daughter. The name Love’s now encompasses both the love Chris has for his children and the undeniable truth that everyone loves ice cream.
Love’s has been a staple at the Grand Rapids Downtown Market for 14 years. With the help of Jake Stacy, partner and COO, Love’s has now expanded to a scoop shop in Ada (grand opening May 16th) as well as the Holland scoop shop, coming this summer. Love’s Ice Cream can also be found at local health food stores such as Harvest Health, Fresh Thyme, Bridge Street Market, and Martha’s Vineyard.
What makes Love’s Ice Cream stand out from all the rest is its commitment to the best, most nutrient-dense ingredients; a commitment that can be traced all the way back to the cows from which Love’s source its dairy.
Love’s Ice Cream & Chocolates sources its dairy from Amish farms in Iowa and soon, Michigan. The dairy is organic, grass-fed, non-homogenized, and from A2 herds. It is also as minimally processed as possible, using a “low and slow” pasteurization process to retain as many nutrients from the milk as possible. Contrastingly, many commercial ice cream manufacturers flash pasteurize their dairy, using high temperatures and a high-speed pasteurization process. This method destroys both the nutrients and the flavor profile of the milk. “You feel the difference as you're consuming the ice cream. It’s a nutrient-dense, creamy, thick, rich experience,” Jake Stacy, COO, explained.
Not only is the ice cream at Love’s crafted with care, but all of the inclusions and sauces are made from scratch in the kitchen at the Downtown Market. “We’re making the ice cream from scratch in-house. We’re making all of our inclusions ourselves from scratch with organic ingredients. So, all of the cookie inclusions, all of the brownie inclusions, the almond toffee bits that you’re going to experience in the ice cream, the sauces, we make our own caramel and hot fudge sauce... we’ve got a staff at the Downtown Market that’s making everything,” Jake elaborated. The Love’s staff plans to continue to make these products in the Downtown Market kitchen and then ship their products to their Ada and Holland scoop shops.
The Love’s mission is to offer “worthy treats for every body.” The staff wants guests to experience not just a delicious product: ice cream, gelato, chocolate, but also a product that is as nutrient-dense and as healthy as a treat can be. For this reason, they proudly offer gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan products. Their vegan gelato is made from organic coconut milk.
Love’s believes in real food. Jake explained it this way: “Every flavor, every bite that you’re experiencing is real food in these products. So, worthy treats for every body. Everyone is welcome here: kiddos, moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, but also folks with dairy intolerance, folks that are vegan, folks that are gluten free.” Additionally, the products are free from seed oils, artificial coloring, and “natural flavors.” Love’s offers nut-free options and uses pure vanilla extract and cane sugar. To color the ice cream, Love’s uses real ingredients such as spinach, beet powder, or even squid ink for a spooky Halloween special.
“We love Holland and couldn’t be more excited about the location,” Jake Stacy shared. Love’s plans to be open year-round, and therefore, isn’t only looking forward to being a part of Holland’s summer season, but also its winter wonderland. Jake mentioned sipping chocolates and other cozy treats that guests can look forward to enjoying with the colder months.
Holland is also extra special to Chris McKellar, founder, as he and his wife got engaged at Centennial Park. Thus, when a location became available, just kiddy-corner to the park, it felt a bit like God was opening the door for them to come back to a place that was already near and dear to the Love’s team.
When you walk through the door of Love’s, “you should expect some worthy treats, some delicious products that are intentionally made, and you should expect a staff with a smile on their face welcoming you into a space that’s created for you and your family and your community,” Jake shared.
The Holland scoop shop will feature 16 rotating flavors in its dip cabinet, with 50-70 flavors in total, rotating throughout the year. Additionally, guests can grab a pint of ice cream from the freezer, which will feature upwards of 50 flavor options at a time.
Two standout flavors, Jake shared, are the nondairy lavender blueberry gelato and the almond toffee crunch ice cream. “Chris McKellar, the founder of Love’s, he truly is a master of ice cream… so anything that’s coming out [has had] a lot of time and thought and energy put into it… He’s fully invested in putting out some incredible products, and he’s an extremely gifted guy,” Jake said.
The Holland scoop shop will also carry chocolate products, including chocolate bonbons, which are “not only beautiful, but also delicious.” Love’s makes its own dark and milk chocolate. “And we’ve got some other fun things that I won’t share about yet, some new stuff... that we haven’t necessarily done or focused on at our other locations, but we think that it will do really well with Holland and the space we’re going to create. Because not only is the product experience important to us for our guests, but so is the experience at the scoop shop,” Jake excitedly shared.
Part of Love’s mission is to “inspire change in the way we treat ourselves and others.” As a staff, the Love’s team is committed to providing quality food for their guests. Jake explained that “consumers are making choices more and more that are reflective of what’s in a product and what [they are] consuming. And we hope to be a part of that change.”
But the mission goes deeper than nutrition. Love’s also hopes to inspire change in how we treat others. Jake explained, “If our staff and our service and our spaces can help change somebody’s day for the better, and then that change can help them go out and pass that forward to someone, I mean, you can truly change the world.”
While there is no set date yet for when Holland can expect Love’s to open its doors to the public, Jake shared that they hope to open the shop as quickly as possible to capture as much of the summer as they can.
And as for the grand opening? He admitted they “definitely have some fun plans. I don’t have them at this point, they’re just visions. But yeah, we’ll do a grand opening and introduce ourselves to Holland with some fun stuff for sure.”
In the meantime, feel free to check out Love’s Instagram to be the first to learn about opening day updates. I think I can speak for most of Holland when I say we’re ecstatic to be able to have our *ice cream* and eat it too, thanks to Love’s.
Jade Havenaar is a Holland native and a life-long lover of the lake, coffee, and a good book. She’s a former middle school teacher and a published author. After marrying the boy she met in a bar and traveling the US together, she and her husband welcomed their first born and Jade happily added “boy mom” to the list of hats she wears. When she’s not writing or changing diapers, she’s probably out adventuring with her Golden Retriever, Henry.
Copyright © 2025 Hollander Media. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without written authorization. By providing your email or phone number, you are consenting to receive emails, calls, and SMS/MMS messages from The Hollander and affiliates. Msg & data rates may apply.
