REAL ice cream lovers know darn well that just because summer is officially over, that doesn’t mean that ice cream eating season is over.  Ice cream eating season is NEVER over!!!!

Cranford Vanilla Bean Creamery owner Ralph Kopelman used to make ice cream at home for friends and family.  When he tired of working in the men’s clothing business for after a quarter of a century, he decided to expand upon that hobby, and attend “Ice Cream University” in West Orange,(no, really!),  after which he opened the Vanilla Bean Creamery at 22 North Avenue West in Cranford in 2010.

Since then, the business has become a Cranford staple, right smack dab in the middle of town.  It’s the perfect place for a special occasion, a family outing, an after-game celebration, or a meeting place for kids.  In addition to their delicious artisan ice creams, (which, by the way, come in a RIDICULOUSLY wonderful array of creative flavors, which rotate), they also  create beautiful ice cream cakes that can be customized with any of their homemade flavors. The store also holds birthday parties, mainly geared towards younger children. Young children can even have their birthday parties right in the shop, where they entertain the children by having them guess ice cream flavors, watch a demonstration on ice cream, and create their own sundaes.  And the municipal parking lot is conveniently located right in back of the store.

Visit their website at http://www.cranfordvanillabeancreamery.com/index.html .  Of course, that’s not NEARLY as much fun as visiting the store itself an trying out some of those fantastic flavors!