Joey Smith Puts Love into Every Scoop at the Village Ice Cream Shoppe

At the Village Ice Cream Shoppe in Mentone, Joey Smith has been serving up ice cream to those in need of a cool treat since 2010. If you ask him about his job, there are two things he wants you to know right off.

First, he loves it. “I’m more at home here than I am in my own home,” Joey says.

Joey Smith at his Village Ice Cream Shoppe

Second, he believes in being generous with his product. “I don’t do these itty bitty servings. That’s one thing I take pride in. I don’t want it done to me, I don’t do it to other people. I do it the old-fashioned way. I love the look on people’s faces when I hand them that ice cream, because they get that surprised look like ‘Oh wow!’ Especially the kids. And I get the five-star ratings for my banana splits. You can ask anybody. They’re huge. Two people can sit down and eat one.” In addition to the cold stuff, Joey sells classics such as Nathan’s hot dogs, Bavarian pretzels, and nachos and cheese.

The Village Ice Cream Shoppe is in the Log Cabin Village on Hwy 117. The Village houses a handful of other stores that sell gifts and the works of local artists and artisans. The Village was developed by Jack Jones, a man of wide-ranging influence in the area. He loved log cabins and had a few moved intact to the site. Others he obtained from around the state, disassembling them and then reassembling them onsite. Joey says his ice creamery is in a building that used to be a smokehouse in Georgia.

“Jack and his wife, Olive, used to come up here in their later years and get ice cream,” Joey recalls. (Jones died in 2012, his wife in 2019.)

Not a Job, But a Joy

Before buying the Village Ice Cream Shoppe, Joey ran a store called Artistic Creations, also in the Log Cabin Village. He sold candles, which he made himself, as well as the eclectic works of area artists. “As time went on, I got to know the owner of the ice cream place. They were thinking of moving on, and I had a chance to buy it. I thought, ‘Why not?’ So I did. And I‘ve loved it ever since. This is my escape.”

People from around the world have stopped in for ice cream, he says. “Czechoslovakia, India, Canada, and of course Ireland, which is one of the places I’d love to go before I kick the bucket. Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Italy, France, and some from Greece. Getting to talk to these people and find out a little bit about their cultures, it has been fascinating. It’s a thrill for me.”

Family Roots and Resilience

If you stop by and Joey’s not there, you’ll get your treats from his cousin, Steven Mitchell, but Joey will be nearby — not five steps away — in the next building in a little shop called MawMaw’s Mountain Treasures. “My mother loved collecting things, buying and reselling, and this was her store for years. She passed away the summer before last. I still keep the store open. She was a very strong woman. We were extremely close, me and my mom. I really miss her.” He still makes candles, which he sells in the shop. “I hand-make them. The Mountain Kudzu’s my number one seller.”

Joey was born in Florida and moved to the tiny community of Central, Alabama, when he was a baby. He attended Rosalie Elementary School in Pisgah. When he was 12, “maybe 13,” he moved to Rainsville after his parents bought a few acres there. “My mother lost a daughter before I was born, my sister, so she was overprotective of me. It was unreal. I couldn’t breathe without her knowing about it. She worked in the lunchroom at Pisgah High School, so that’s where I went to high school. We rode up together. My father was a welder and a full-time Baptist minister. Then he started a lawn-mowing business. He had 40 or 50 yards.”

Joey lost his own daughter, Bethany, to diabetes. “That was seven years ago. She was only 36. Dad died three years after that. So of all the adults in my family, it’s just me and my grandson. He’s 17 and 6’4” and does his own thing. We’re supposed to go and get dinner sometime or another. That boy can eat.”

Witness to Local History

He remembers when the Mentone Springs Hotel burned in March 2014. “They called me and said the hotel was on fire and that the whole Log Cabin Village was in danger, so I rushed over. They evacuated everybody. We stood and cried and watched the hotel burn to the ground. They couldn’t do anything to save it — 130-year-old wood. Thankfully, the wind changed direction, and that saved the Village.”

In addition to running his ice cream business, Joey loves to create candles and spend time during the week watching over the couple of acres he owns in Henagar. “I’m a big animal person,” he says. “I used to have a horse. I have three dogs now. One of them I took in after Jimmy Rogers (co-owner of the now-closed Green Leaf Grill) passed. He was like a brother to me.”

The Village Ice Cream Shoppe is hard to miss, as there are usually groups of people placing their orders or sitting out front with plenty of napkins and smiles on their faces. The shop is open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays between April and the end of November, so there’s still plenty of time to experience one of Joey’s banana splits or a big scoop or two. Stop in and say hello next time you’re around the Village.

“I love meeting people,” Joey says. “This has been an amazing journey so far.”