Amy's Ice Creams is a privately owned chain of ice cream shops in Texas with headquarters in Austin.[1] The Austin Chronicle described Amy's as a "quintessentially Austin institution" which "dominates the local ice cream scene."[2] Amy's ice cream is owned by Amy Simmons.[3] The readers of the Austin Chronicle have voted Amy's the best "reader's ice cream" eight years in a row.[4]
Known colloquially as Amy's, Amy's Ice Creams was started by Amy Simmons in 1984. While in Boston, as a premedical major at Tufts University, Amy worked for Steve's Ice Cream. After Steve's Ice Cream was purchased by a larger corporation, Amy decided to go into business for herself. Amy and her business partner Scott Shaw eventually decided to open their ice cream shop in Austin. They wrote a check for the lease of their first store on Guadalupe Street in Austin.[5] Amy has since opened fourteen more locations, with the majority of them in Austin, two in Houston, and one in San Antonio.
