ROUND HILL, Nev. – It’s tough to beat a perfect summer day at Lake Tahoe. Basking in the High Sierra sun, taking in the crisp mountain air, and dipping in the lake while soaking up summertime. What can compliment the best summer day? Ice cream – but not just any ice cream, artisanal, small-batch, handmade ice cream.  

One of South Shore’s newest small businesses, Castle Rock Creamery, opened up its trailer in the Round Hill Plaza Shopping Center earlier this summer season, and has officially been dishing out unique bites of their sweet flavors of ice cream since late June.  

Owner and co-founder of Castle Rock Creamery, Josh Fisher, has a lifetime career as a professional chef, and this past spring season, came across an offer that was hard to pass up.  

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“I graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in New York, where I completed all my classical training and initial education,” Fisher said. “After the last few years in the hospitality industry, I wanted to do something new. I shifted gears, and thought to myself that ice cream would be a good fit.” 

Reflecting on his longtime career in the kitchen, Fisher recalls having a desire to get into ice cream from early on.  

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“Getting into ice cream is something that’s been on my radar for a long time,” Fisher said. “I came across a batch freezer early on in my career, and remember how the machine sparked my interest immediately.”  

“This past spring, I was ramping up to go back to my job in Mendocino County, and I really didn’t want to go back,” Fisher said. “It finally felt like the time to take a chance, and so I decided that was it. I started looking around for spaces to operate and looked online for used equipment. I found our trailer we now operate Castle Rock Creamery out of, and it felt like things were finally starting to line up.”  

Castle Rock Creamery creates “small batch, artisanal ice cream,” using the best ingredients on the market. All of the creamery’s dairy is sourced regionally by Straus Family Creamery in Marin County.  

“We use Straus Dairy products as our base, and from there, add in the additional flavor components to make each flavor of our ice cream unique,” Fisher said. “We try to do everything top quality – not just the ice cream base, but as time goes on, we’re going to continue to source the highest quality of ingredients.” 

Proactively working to utilize top-shelf ingredients such as ethically sourced vanilla and chocolate, Castle Rock Creamery also aims to create inclusivity for all diets and allergies with their extensive menu of flavors, offering dairy-free sorbets as well as vegan options.  

“We have a good selection of non-dairy ice cream, sorbet, and sherbet; we try our best to offer a strong variety of flavors so there’s a good amount of choice for our customers,” Fisher said. “There’s so many choices that are unique and creative on our menu.”  

Fisher continues, stating that the flavor that “started it all” was their Salted Caramel White Russian, modeled after the famous cocktail. The caramel is made in-house by Fisher himself, and the flavor profile is a caramel-flavored ice cream base with a touch of coffee and rounded off with a splash of vodka to keep a smooth consistency in the ice cream blend.  

Unlike other big-box creameries, Castle Rock Creamery composes unique profiles for each of their ice cream flavors, and is continuously working on keeping their menu fresh, relevant, and complimentary of the current season by offering up small batches of ice cream flavors.  

“We try to offer flavors that are composed and balanced, and try to offer certain flavors seasonally,” Fisher said. “Some recent favorites have been our Bourbon Peach Pie ice cream, and we’re transitioning into our Blueberry Cheesecake seasonal flavor.”  

While Castle Rock Creamery’s home base is their grab-and-go trailer in Round Hill Plaza, the creamery also has a production facility located locally at the bottom of the Kingsbury Grade. As it stands, the production facility is currently utilized as a space to make the ice cream in a professional kitchen; but looking forward, Fisher is eager to continue to grow the business more into the space and get further rooted into the local community.  

“We’ll be working towards having some retail space in our production facility in the near future,” Fisher said. “We’ll be able to do scoops from our production facility location, and we’ve already been working towards upgrading some of our equipment. One of those upgrades will allow us to grow into offering ice cream pints in the near future, as well.”  

While Castle Rock Creamery’s trailer will shut its doors for the winter season at Round Hill Plaza, Fisher is optimistic that with their footprint on the South Lake Tahoe local community thus far and their expansion into their production space, the creamery will continue to grow their ice cream cult following and keep up with the demand for new flavors throughout the year.  

“Once the weather cools down, we want our community to know that we are still here, just located in our production space for scoops and pints,” Fisher said.  

Aiming to be forward-thinking, Fisher is eager to continue to grow Castle Rock Creamery, planning to offer holiday-themed flavors, such as gingerbread ice cream and dark chocolate Grand Marnier.  

Fisher is grateful to be involved in the South Lake Tahoe local business landscape, and is excited to continue to evolve with Castle Rock Creamery as it expands.  

“This is almost therapy for me,” Fisher said. “After running really complicated commercial kitchens and doing large events, I wanted to do something that was a bit more grounded and down to earth, while still fun for me where I can use my skills.” 

“If you like us, bring a friend, we’ll be here, we love our community, we absolutely love to engage with our customers,” Fisher said. “Being here locally and living in Lake Tahoe is like no other, and I look forward to continuing to dig my heels into this community as a business owner.”  

Castle Rock Creamery is located at 212 Elks Point Road, Zephyr Cove, Nev. The ice cream trailer is currently open Wednesday – Sunday from 2:30 – 8:30 P.M. For more information on Castle Rock Creamery, visit https://www.castlerockcreamery.com/. 

Madison Schultz is a freelancer for the Tahoe Daily Tribune and Sierra Sun.