ourstory

Before Gilligan's became Gilligan's, it was known by a handful of other names, including K & K's and the Dairy Isle. In 1984, it became Gilligan's for the first time under then owner Scott Snyder.

Matt Lagoe bought the business in 1988 and actually held a local contest to change the name, but the votes showed that overwhelmingly, people wanted it to remain Gilligan's. 

Twin brothers Mike and Andy Lagoe started working for their Uncle Matt at Gilligan's in 1990, the summer before they left for college.

17 years later, in 2007, Mike and Andy took over the business.

Gilligan's has grown in many ways since it first began. We pride ourselves on providing delicious and high-quality food and ice cream to our community and those traveling through. 

We began making our own ice cream in 1996 and now have over 30+ flavors, including several that we highlight seasonally. In addition to the classic soft Chocolate and soft Vanilla, we often have two rotating specialty soft flavors which we also make ourselves, including Chocolate Peanut Butter, Candy Cane, Lemon Custard, Black Raspberry and more.

In addition to homemade ice cream, we make all of the soups and chili on our menu from scratch as well. We prepare our popular onion rings ourselves from start to finish: they're hand-cut, dipped, breaded and fried right in-house. We bake our own rolls, make our own ice cream cakes with customizable messaging, ice cream flavors and designs, and even offer kids' meals.

Our summertime Wednesday Bike Night and Cruise-In has become a regional event with hundreds of participants weekly. 

In 2018, we worked with New York State legislators to legalize the sale of ice cream flavors made with beer and hard cider. Wine ice cream was already legal, but after experimenting with new flavors made with products from local cideries and breweries, we wanted to be able to share our results! Since the legislation was passed, we've been expanding on our list of wine, beer, and hard cider flavors, and we've loved seeing our customers' reactions.

In 2020, we expanded our flavor offerings even further by working with legislators again to get hard liquor added to the list of legal ice cream ingredients. Stop by the restaurant for a pint of Fireball Whiskey, Bourbon Vanilla, Strawberry Daiquiri, Maple Whiskey and Kahlua & Bailey's. Of course, you must be 21 to sample and/or buy any of these flavors.

As our alcohol-based flavors took off, we created a new branch of our business to focus solely on offering our full ice cream line-up, and it is now its own stand-alone business selling flavors (both alcoholic and non) to wholesale locations across upstate New York including restaurants, wineries, breweries, cideries, grocery stores, sports venues and more.

Mike runs the restaurant while Andy and his business partner Gil head up wholesaling. Learn more about wholesaling at www.gilligansicecream.com or by contacting andy@gilligansicecream.com or gil@gilligansicecream.com. 

We're proud to be a Sherburne and Central NY institution and we appreciate the loyalty and love our community has shown us over many, many years.

See you at the Island!