New store brings dairy’s treats to town

BY GEOFFREY GRAYBEAL ggraybeal@heraldsun.com; 918-1033
Chapel Hill Herald
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
Final Edition
Front Section
Page 1

HILLSBOROUGH -- For Revere Road resident Edna Ellis there's only one thing better than the ice cream parlor and country store on maple view farm west of Carrboro.

And that is a maple view store in Hillsborough, closer to her home.

maple view Two opened 10 days ago in the Hampton Pointe shopping center off N.C. 86, catty- cornered to the Super Wal-Mart.

"I love maple view, especially their butter," said Ellis, who recently purchased a tub of the farm's homemade spread on her first trip to the new store. "Their spread they have is a real good product. I don't have to drive out in the country now. I like this location."

Ellis, who ventures weekly to the Wal-Mart, said she would be a regular at the new maple view store.

"I drove out to the country just to get it," she said. "It tastes like the old-fashioned butter we used to make. I still have my family's old churn. I love it."

maple view Two will carry 14 regular flavors of ice cream and also sell milk, meats, butter and honey.

"We're pretty much just like the other store," said Greg Tilley, whose wife Patti owns and manages the new store. "We try to be a mirror of the other location."

Greg Tilley, who has owned his own pressure cleaning business for 12 years, has long known the Nutter family that owns maple view farm, since he grew up on the neighboring Anilorac farm.

Tilley is friends with Bob Nutter's daughter, Muffin Brosig, who owns the original maple view farm ice cream parlor that opened three years ago at the intersection of Rocky Ridge Road and Dairyland Road.

When Patti Tilley, who ran the Hallmark store at University Mall for 23 years, decided it was time for a career change, the Tilleys asked about opening a maple view store.

"We thought this would be a good family business to be involved in," Greg Tilley said. "It would be fun."

While Patti Tilley handles the daily operations, Greg and children Justin, 13, and Madison, 10, also lend helping hands.

The shop employs one full-time employee and 12 part-time workers, mostly students from Orange and Cedar Ridge high schools.

The hours are noon to 9 p.m. daily, but might extend until 10 p.m. after Memorial Day weekend.

Both stores use milk and cream from the maple view dairy to make the ice cream. The dairy has a lot of excess cream because skim milk is the farm's best seller.

Greg Tilley said Hampton Pointe was a perfect fit for the new store because of the Wal-Mart and access to Interstate 85.

"We looked at Meadowmont, but we just figured there were a lot of ice cream stores already in Chapel Hill," he said.

maple view Two is Hillsborough's first full-scale ice cream parlor.

"Everybody who comes in keeps saying 'oh, we're so glad you're here' and 'oh, you're going to be so busy, so busy,'" said Patti Tilley. "I just hope they're right."

The store registered 225 customers on its first day open. Many first-time customers vow to become regulars.

"I definitely will come back," said 14-year-old Brittany Pittman, as she licked a cone of coffee ice cream.

Her dad, Don Pittman, and 13-year-old brother, Donnie, made their first trip to the store recently.

The family comes to Hampton Pointe several times a week, and if Brittany had her choice, the Orange High freshman would eat maple view ice cream more than once a day.

Brittany predicted success for the Tilleys' business.

"I think a lot of money is going to be coming here, from mostly the kids," she said.

But teens aren't the only ones who like lots of ice cream.

Marcus Walker, 30, and Lisa Jones, 21, recently enjoyed some almond butter pecan and double chocolate, respectively.

Walker said he would eat at maple view Two twice a week, while Jones joked she would like to eat ice cream as "three square meals a day."

"I'm addicted to ice cream so [I eat] a lot and I think I'll be here often as well," said Walker, who works at nearby Cheer Carolina. "This is just a half mile down the street, so this might be trouble."

A grand opening ceremony is planned for May 22.