As the weather warms up for summer, a locally owned business has opened its doors on Salem’s 4th Street ready to cool folks off. The family business, owned by Skip and Darlene Dahms, offers ice cream and a gift shop, with plans in the future for additions to services, including local author readings and maybe even a pasta bar. The Dahm’s opened 4th Street Creamery located on 116 West 4th Street April 15 in hopes of spurring on the revitalization of Downtown Salem.
Darlene and Skip haven’t always lived in Salem, but they’ve always loved it. Skip has been visiting Montauk with his family all of his life, while Darlene started tagging along before they were married. It didn’t take long for Darlene and Skip to fall in love with the town of Salem and decide to pack their bags and move here.
“We were always coming into Salem, and this town was what caught, I guess you could say, our hearts,” shared Darlene.
Offerings at 4th Street Creamery include a cake cone or dish, waffle cone, sundae, baseball sundae (served in a baseball hat styled bowl), floats, shakes, malts, specialty sundaes, or a banana split, with plenty of flavor offerings and toppings. After taking part in some ice cream, maybe check out the gift shop located in the back, featuring all kinds of goods.
The ice cream shop is unique in more than what it offers—on the walls of the business, restaurant goers can see a unique splash of art with one side featuring cartoon likenesses of the Dahm family, while the other side features homages to the things that make Salem great like trout fishing, the 100 Acre Wood Rally, and even a memorial of sorts to Libby Sanders, storyteller and “Mother Goose” of the Bonebrake Center. The murals were painted by Salem R-80 students, overseen by high school art teacher Angela Dingess and completed over the course of a year.
