1 of 6
Spouses Lori and Corey Bullock, owners of Alter Ice Cream
2 of 6
Alter Ice Cream opened in early January at 122 W. Tabb St. in Petersburg.
3 of 6
Inside Alter Ice Cream
4 of 6
Alter Ice Cream offers espresso-based drinks and has partnered with Recluse Roasting Project for its beans.
5 of 6
Interior detail of Alter Ice Cream
6 of 6
Perhaps more than any other food, ice cream has a way of lifting one’s mood almost instantly. It’s tough to be sad with a cone in your hand. That ability to change attitudes inspired Corey and Lori Bullock in choosing the name for their new Petersburg scoop shop, Alter Ice Cream, launched earlier this month at 122 W. Tabb St.
The name also nods to the idea of an alter ego, with the shop serving as the sweet, playful side to the Bullocks’ original concept, Euterra, an innovative, chef-driven pop-up dinner series celebrating foraged ingredients and exceptional technique. The Bullocks hosted the Euterra pop-ups, with Corey in the kitchen and Lori working the front of the house, in Petersburg and Richmond before buying a building in Old Towne Petersburg that will eventually become Euterra’s permanent home.
But before committing to the expensive hood system required for Euterra, the couple decided to pursue one of their other dreams — ice cream. “We had always wanted to open an ice cream shop, but we weren’t really in a position in our lives to afford a commercial space,” Corey explains. “So we had bounced around that idea, and then we just kind of put it on the back burner. We just kept our heads down and kept grinding at our jobs. And, you know, we were just kind of like, ‘Well, we’ll get there eventually.’”
In the midst of renovating the building they’d purchased, work completed mostly by Corey, the Bullocks decided to move forward with the ice cream plan as a first step. Though neither had worked in an ice cream shop before, Corey says, his experience as a chef at restaurants including Longoven and Aziza’s on Main, highly regarded bygone eateries in Richmond, were the perfect preparation. “I have a lot of experience making ice cream because one of the main things that we had on our desserts [menu] was ice cream,” he says. “We always used a Pacojet [a professional kitchen appliance useful for quick freezing], which allowed me to experiment more with smaller batches.”
Every morsel at Alter, from ice cream to toppings such as mallow fluff, whipped cream and caramel, as well as waffle cones and drinks, is made in-house. Corey tapped Richlands Dairy to provide the ever-important milk and cream and, as he did with Euterra, leans on local and foraged ingredients to deliver unexpected and delightful flavors in each microbatch.
Flavor selections at Alter Ice Cream
For their rosemary, fig and shortbread flavor, Corey bakes a buttery shortbread that he adds to a rosemary-flavored base, the herb sourced straight from the Bullocks’ garden and figs gathered from trees around Petersburg. Alter’s limoncello cannoli pays homage to Corey’s grandmother, who used to make the Italian treat with him when he was younger. He bakes, fries and crushes a traditional cannoli shell before swirling the pieces into a ricotta-based ice cream and brightening them with swirls of limoncello curd.
“We’re just playing around and trying to make the most interesting and best ice cream we can make,” Corey says. From its 16-tub ice cream freezer, Alter also offers vegan flavors, made with a base of coconut and oat milks. One vegan selection blends white miso with a tart cranberry compote and chunks of crystalized ginger. Classic dairy options, including a traditional vanilla, will likely linger on the menu, but otherwise, guests can expect flavors to rotate with the seasons and the supply of foraged ingredients on hand at any given time.
Using beans from Recluse Roasting Project, the shop serves espresso drinks including the seasonal fixture orange cardamom and salted maple latte, made with fresh green cardamom. High-quality coffee plays a crucial role in Alter’s affogatos. “Corey’s family is Italian, so it was very important to kind of keep an Italian feel,” Lori explains.
There is also an Italian cream soda (currently orange creamsicle) that comes topped with a Luxardo cherry, and patrons can order floats, milkshakes and pints to go.
Designed by the Bullocks themselves, the interior of Alter Ice Cream is full of whimsy with a slight edge. The duo drew on their artistic backgrounds to create pieces that marry famous works of art with ice cream: Mona Lisa smiling with a cone in her hand; Goya’s “Saturn Devouring His Son,” now a dripping ice cream cone; Magritte’s “The Son of Man,” with a scoop of strawberry in place of the green apple. Local artist Barry Roebuck, a friend of the Bullocks’, also contributed four original works to the shop’s “alt wall.”
From the nostalgic checkered floors to the pressed tin ceilings, Alter reflects the care the Bullocks have poured into the space. The shop represents a step toward their ultimate vision: opening Euterra as a casual, neighborhood restaurant — with occasional pop-ups inspired by its early days — alongside the sweet treat shop they long dreamed of creating.
Alter Ice Cream’s winter hours are Friday-Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
