Last month the awning at the former location of Dave’s Food Store on 20th and Connecticut streets sported new signage: Loard’s Ice Cream. The impending arrival of the parlor signaled the end of a dessert desert, of sorts. Potrero Hill’s last ice cream store, The Daily Scoop, on 18th Street, which opened in the mid-1970s, closed in 2002.
Mike Samra, 33, and his younger brother, Jessie Samra, 31, bought All States Best Foods, which included the Dave’s Food Store property next door, in 2021. After Dave’s Food Store shuttered during the pandemic, the previous owners, brothers Khalid and Moe, who’d owned and operated All States for more than 25 years, decided to retire.
Mike and Jessie began working together when Mike was 25, Jessie, 23. The brothers were born in the East Bay. Their parents immigrated from Punjab, India in the 1980s. Both regularly work 16-hour shifts at one or another of their five enterprises.
The Loard’s Ice Cream Parlor in Potrero Hill will be the first Loard’s ice cream in San Francisco. It’ll operate under license from Brian Tam, whose family bought Loard’s ten years ago, growing it to 11 outlets. The predominately East Bay chain was founded in 1950 by two friends, Russ Salyards and John Lowe, in Oakland. Many of his original stores remain, in Castro Valley, Alameda, Orinda, and Livermore. They continue to rely on Russ’ Salyard’s equipment operating in the original MacArthur Boulevard factory. Just three individuals are responsible for making the ice cream, filling each pint by hand.
Mike’s favorite Loard’s ice cream is Rocky Road; Jessie loves the Coffee flavor. They both enjoy salami sandwiches. To help market Loard’s, which’ll also vend sandwiches, the duo plan to offer $1 scoops for a limited time. The store’s opening is dependent on San Francisco Public Health Department approval, which has been stalled multiple times since the brothers acquired the business.
