The Brothers Behind Always Ice Cream Offer Cold Comfort in Baltimore and Beyond

When Ross Cohen decided to purchase the Annapolis Ice Cream Company in 2019, his sons Mark, pictured right, and Adam, pictured left, didn’t want their dad to have all the fun. While both boys were pursuing other professions—Mark, now 30, was in copier sales; Adam, now 33, was in marketing—they quit their jobs the following year to make ice cream a family affair.

“Because we grew up eating a lot of ice cream, we always thought it would be fun to open an ice cream store,” says Mark. “I mean, who doesn’t love ice cream?”

Before long, the Arnold-born brothers decided to put their own spin on the dairy dessert and opened an offshoot scoops shop called Always Ice Cream in West Annapolis.

“We wanted it to have an edgy, millennial vibe,” says Mark. “We want people to sit and do work or hang out with friends. Having ice cream is just the cherry on the top.”

To date, the brothers have six stores, from Cross Keys to Crofton (their latest location), plus a roving food truck. Their ice cream is also carried by about 120 different regional stores including Graul’s (various locations) and Eddie’s of Roland Park, as well as Atlas Restaurant Group.

Plans to expand even further are in the works. “We’re obsessed with super premium ice cream,” says Mark, “and we wanted to share it with other people.”

Where did the name Always Ice Cream come from?
Adam: We were messing around saying, “It’s always ice cream o’clock’”—and it just kind of just stuck.

How is your ice cream different from other ice creams on the market?
Mark: We are focused on natural and wholesome ingredients. A lot of ice cream stores will put apple pie flavoring in their ice cream—we put a full pie in the ice cream or actual birthday cake in our birthday cake ice cream. You should be able to close your eyes and know exactly what you’re eating—you should be able to see the peaches or the pie crust in the peach pie ice cream.

Tell me about your flavors.
Mark: We make the ice cream at our Edgewater location. We have 200 to 250 flavors and they’re always rotating. We have a core set of flavors, like chocolate, strawberry, and chocolate brownie brownie batter, that are always there, but we open a store with one set of flavors and by afternoon or evening, new flavors will emerge and old ones will be gone. We also have vegan flavors that are dairy-free and gluten-free, too.

What are your favorite flavors?
Mark: Banana pudding with vanilla wafer.

Adam: Vanilla, chocolate, salty caramel—I like the more basic flavors.

What’s the division of labor?
Adam: I handle all the ice cream production, events, restaurant sales, and product delivery. Mark handles social media, scheduling, and store operations. He handles the front end and I handle the back end.

Mark: That’s why we don’t get into arguments. Our dad helps with the paper goods and does deliveries. Our mom is a professional taste tester—she comes in and says, “I don’t want any ice cream,” and then starts eating it all.

So how much ice cream do you eat in a day?
Adam: Now my taste tester is my wife. We don’t eat as much as we did before we owned ice cream shops, because now we’re eating our profit.