Ocean Grove, NJ | Est. 1876
Our Story
Ocean Grove’s oldest operating business
“Delicious and Unique. A Step Back in Time.”
That was the promise on the old sign. It still holds. Day’s Ice Cream opened on Pitman Avenue in August of 1876, when Ocean Grove was still a scrub pine settlement, a Methodist tent colony pitched beside the sea. Most businesses from that era are footnotes. Day’s is still open. Come summer, the line still stretches out the door.
150+ Years of History
The Road to Now
1876
A Scoop, a Corner, a Beginning
Brothers William F. and Pennington Day open an ice cream parlor on Pitman Avenue in August 1876. Despite Ocean Grove being just five years old, Day's starts serving.
1882
Day & Brothers Ice Cream Saloon
The parlor expands to Asbury Park and Newark. Photographs from the era show tables arranged around a grassy courtyard. The Day brothers are building an empire.
1920s
Two Shore Towns, One Name
Day's becomes a Jersey Shore summer ritual. The Pitman Avenue shop outlasts recessions and competition. Long after the other locations close, the original endures.
2017
Back to the Boardwalk
Responding to customer demand, Day's opens a second outpost: Just Another Day's at 4 North End Boardwalk, inside the Dunes Café. Two locations, one legacy.
2019
Fire on the Boardwalk
A devastating fire consumes the Dunes Café structure. Day's returns exclusively to its historic home at 48 Pitman Avenue. Some chapters end, but the story doesn't.
Today
New Hands. Same Soul.
Entering its 150th year under new ownership, Day's promises to honor the historic name, address, and original recipes. What's new is who's keeping the lights on.
New Ownership | Same Promise
Honoring 150+ years
When you take over a shop that has operated continuously since 1876, you feel the weight of it. Families have been coming here for four, five, six generations. There are people who got their first scoop as a child, brought their own children, and now watch their grandchildren do the same. That’s not a customer base. That’s a covenant.
We have no interest in “reimagining” Day’s. The name, the corner, the recipes, they belong to Ocean Grove. Our job is to show up every summer, make it the way it’s always been made, and hand you a cone that tastes like a memory you haven’t made yet.
Day’s has survived a century and a half. That kind of endurance only happens because each generation of stewards respected what they inherited. We intend to do the same.
Where to Find Us?
Same Corner. All Summer Long.
48 Pitman Avenue, on Auditorium Park Ocean Grove, NJ 07756
Serving May through October. Open seven days a week, Memorial Day through Labor Day.