New Soft-Serve Ice Cream Shop Celebrates Grand Opening In St. Pete

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — When the Dairy Inn at 1201 Dr MLK Jr. Street N. closed its doors at the end of 2023 after 76 years in business, that was all the other parents at local parks and playgrounds could talk about, Steve McGarry told Patch.

“It was an incredibly well known and loved staple,” he said. “Once that happened, with all the little kids going to the parks and all the families talking about it, it boiled down to, ‘Who’s gonna do it? Who’s gonna bring soft serve back?’”

McGarry and his wife, Sarah, realized the concept could be a great community-based, passion business for their family.

They celebrated the grand opening of their Wildflower Ice Cream shop, 2603 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street N., earlier this month with a ribbon cutting.

The shop offers New Zealand-style, made-to-order soft serve ice cream using whole, real fruit mixed into a base.

The endeavor is also influenced by his wife’s California upbringing. Growing up in San Jose, Sarah lived down the block from a shop centered on the classic Swirl Freeze dessert maker, well known on the West Coast.

“As a little girl, she’d go down the street and there would be this loud machine making ice cream,” McGarry said.

He added, “When she told me about it, I knew we had to build a business around it.”

The machine also made their goal of a 50/50 dairy-based and vegan menu easy — which was personally important to the couple because their son was nondairy during the first year of his life and McGarry is also lactose intolerant.

“All you have to do is change the base of the ice cream to vegan and the entire menu opens up,” he said.

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At the heart of the ice cream shop is partnerships with other local businesses.

“I wanted it to be collaborative with everybody, make it a whole community,” McGreery said.

The owners of Pete’s Bagels created Wildflower’s logo, Look Alive Coffee’s owners designed the ice cream shop’s menu and Sun Signs St. Pete designed the A-frame chalkboard sign that stands out front of the shop,

The couple has also incorporated offerings from local companies into their potential toppings swirled into the ice cream and other pairings — gluten-free and vegan brownies from HaleLife Bakery, honey-glazed croissants from Cafe Clementine, and confetti sugar cookies from Pete’s Bagels.

The business is truly a family affair. McGreery, a former software CEO, sold his last two tech companies and was wondering what he might do next, especially with two young children, ages four-and-a-half and 1 years old.

“I wanted to take a beat from software and do something different, and teach them about business through something they understand,” he said. “And what better than ice cream.”

The shop is “truly family owned,” he added. “Our kids are on the menu. Their names are on the menu and their favorite ice creams are on the menu.”

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