Popular Bay City homemade ice cream shop finds new home in City Market
BAY CITY, MI – The familiar face who scooped and made the community’s favorite homemade ice cream for years has opened his own shop.
Dan Maciag owns The Polar Lab, located inside the City Market, 401 Center Ave.
Maciag is the one who made the ice cream at MaMa Lupo’s for the last 25 years, he said.
MaMa Lupo’s, 200 N. Henry St., which was owned by Maciag’s mother-in-law Linda Lupo, went up for sale in March.
Lupo and her husband Ricke Lupo opened the shop in 1997, so she was ready to retire from the ice cream business, Maciag said.
The building and everything in it — as part of the deal — has been officially sold, Maciag said.
Once the listing was officially announced, Maciag said there were a lot of disappointed people on social media, and Maciag and his family decided they needed to do something.
“We weren’t ready to quit. We weren’t ready to be done,” Maciag said.
Luckily, Maciag is friends with Crazy Quarters Arcade owner Jeff Palmer, so they connected about setting up an ice cream shop in City Market, Maciag said.
From filing the business license to opening the doors, Maciag said it only took six weeks, and it was a whirlwind.
But the Maciag family worked together to purchase all the equipment they needed, Maciag’s brother Dustin Maciag created their logo signs, menus and merchandise, and they were off the ground running.
Maciag said the arcade, Level Up Lounge and The Polar Lab now create a complete family outing in one building.
Crazy Quarters offers a variety of games to play. Level Up Lounge offers pizza, salads, breads, subs, hot dogs, nachos, chicken strips and more.
“What more do you need? You’ve got pizza, arcade and ice cream all under one roof,” Maciag said. “The whole collaboration and everything has been really cool. It’s gonna be a great place to hang out.”
The flavors of ice cream will rotate as they did at MaMa Lupo’s. There are about 25 flavors available at one time at The Polar Lab and Maciag is still churning the favorites, such as peanut butter cup, mint chip and pistachio nut.
However, they will not post a flavor list, because they switch out the flavors so often, Maciag said.
One of Maciag’s favorite things to do is to experiment with ingredients to create brand new flavors. That’s the main reason they went with the name The Polar Lab, short for laboratory, Maciag said.
“It’s kind of like naming your kid. Because we went through three days, three nights of names,” Maciag said. “The thing that really stuck with us is we like to experiment with ice cream. We like to, you know, try to come up with new flavors.”
Maciag said they also wanted a little mascot, and a penguin made sense since they are typically associated with polar regions.
It was important to the Maciag family to take in all the feedback they have received over the years at MaMa Lupo’s and do their best to offer more at The Polar Lab.
Some of those things included better parking, which they have, they accept credit now instead of cash only and they have restrooms available to use.
Maciag said they are now also offering a four-scoop sampler, pre-packed ice cream and Polar Nachos, which is five small scoops of ice cream with choice of toppings served with homemade waffle cone chips.
They even hope to stay open year-round, Maciag said.
Cost ranges from $4.75 to $8 for a small, medium or large in a cup, cone or waffle cone.
They also offer sundaes, banana splits, stacked splits, shakes, malts, floats, coolers, pints, half gallons and three gallons.
Stacked splits are a favorite, Maciag said. They are a two-dip banana spilt made in a cup with two scoops of ice cream with a choice of toppings.
The main entrance to access The Polar Lab is on the east side of the City Market building.
Crazy Quarters Arcade offers a party area, and The Polar Lab does offer the ability to order pre-packed ice cream, or they can open the shop for the party, Maciag said.
The Polar Lab’s current hours are 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. daily. However, that will be changing after Memorial Day, Maciag said.
If guests are at the arcade during the day on weekends and the Maciag family is there whipping up fresh batches of ice cream and waffle cones, they will serve them, Maciag said.
For more up-to-date information, visit The Polar Lab Facebook page here.