CLEVELAND, Ohio -- After nearly a month of voting and visiting and lapping up delicious ice cream, we finally have a winner for cleveland.com's Best Ice Cream contest 2016: Pav's Creamery in Akron.
The winning shop beat out a grand total of 43 other ice cream shops in the Greater Cleveland area that were nominated by our readers as among the best, including the three other regional winners: Honey Hut (multiple locations), Fenik's Frozen Custard in Avon, and Dairy King in South Euclid.
In fact, Pav's narrowly edged runner-up Honey Hut. Pav's garnered 34.22 percent of the total votes to Honey Hut's 33.52 percent. Fenik's was next with 28.29 percent, followed by Dairy King (3.97 percent).
Pav's has two area locations, one in Green and another in Portage Lakes.
Nik Pappas, one of the co-owners of Pav's Creamery and part of the third generation in the family that owns the shops, was excited to hear they beat out all the competition.
"That's so dope," he said excitedly.
Pav's is known for its unique flavors of homemade ice cream like its Burnt Butter Rum, Nuts Over Coconut and Pumpkin Pecan Pie. And at the Green location, you can even grab yourself a spiked treat since the shop has a liquor license. Try the adult milkshakes, the champagne sorbet with fresh raspberries or the white peach margarita sorbet.
In fact, according to Pappas, Pav's Creamery is one of two ice cream shops in the country with a liquor license, and the other is in Las Vegas.
Pappas said the community response was overwhelming, with several social media promos in Green and Portage Lakes, and even the mayor of Green urging its Facebook followers to vote for Pav's Creamery.
"It was just heartwarming, it means a lot," Pappas said of the support rallied by the community. "We're a little ice cream stand out of Akron so to be competing with these big boys who have tons of locations and great ice cream and lots of exposure, it's kind of cool. I felt like the underdog coming into this."
Pappas said the shop will be celebrating with a giveaway of some sort for their loyal fans, but the details haven't been worked out yet. If you're interested, keep an eye on Pav's Facebook page for more information on that in the coming days.