ELYRIA, Ohio — A Northeast Ohio couple decided they weren't quite ready to retire after all so they decided to launch a new adventure: an ice cream shop.

What You Need To Know

  • Serving Toft’s ice cream known as the oldest dairy in Ohio

  • Elmer’s will also serve sandwiches, hamburgers and nachos

  • The Oleksiaks' purchased the building in June of 2020 for $50,000

John Oleksiak has always had a love for food.

He was an executive chef before he gave that up to enter the corporate world. Now, 30 years later, he's returned to his love for food or in this case ice cream.

“You can take the chef out of the kitchen, but you can’t take the kitchen out of the chef. So it’s always something that has been a passion for me and I enjoy. To me, it’s a no-brainer and it’s easy to do so like I said I really do enjoy it,” said Oleksiak, the owner of Elmer's Ice Cream & More.

John and his wife, Cynthia, both retired but they didn't know how to slow down. The couple opened Elmer's in hopes of being closer to family, staying active and also building a tighter bond with the community.

“I wasn't ready to retire because I have grandchildren and in these days you have to keep them going. You have to show'em by example, so we are going to continue this and hopefully get them involved,” said Cynthia Oleksiak, owner of Elmer's Ice Cream & More.

“We retired from the corporate world and broke into the ice cream shop business,” said John Oleksiak.

Elmer’s gets its ice cream from Toft’s Dairy in Sandusky, known as Ohio's oldest dairy.

Cynthia said she chose Toft’s because it brings back fond memories. 

“Growing up as a kid my dad worked at the “GM” plant in Sandusky so that was the big trip you would go across the bridge to over to Sandusky from Port Clinton to have ice cream at Toft’s Ice Cream and sit on the wooden benches,” said Cynthia Oleksiak.

History is woven throughout the business.

John and Cynthia picked this historic 1893 building for the shop and then totally remodeled it. 

“This whole corridor on this side seemed like it was somewhat forgotten ya know? You have 15 to 20 blocks of a lot of rental properties and not a lot of walk-friendly places to go,” said John Oleksiak.

The name of the shop is a piece of family history, inspired by a stuffed elephant that has been in their family for decades.

“We were struggling coming up with a name for this place. We had Elmer sitting in our living room and it’s my son’s stuffed animal since he was a child so he’s been around 20 years now and we used to have a lot of fun kidding around with my son and with Elmer making voices with him and everything like that.” 

Elmer’s is located in downtown Elyria.

The shop serves sandwiches in addition to ice cream.