Ice cream lover finds her joy at Lloyd's Country Custard (2025)

Erna Lloyd loves ice cream. Like, really loves ice cream.

“I need ice cream every day,” she says.

Lloyd, and her husband, Bob, own and operate Lloyd’s Country Custard, off Ocean Heights Road in Egg Harbor Township. They’ve been there for the past 25 years. It’s the perfect place to be if you have an ice cream craving that won’t go away.

“If you’re going to have to work, this is the place to do it,” she says of the stand that is your classic ice cream spot with the sliding glass window and a multitude of frosty options to lure you into a brain freeze. “Like I’m going to get ready to open and I’m going to go out there and sample a little mango ice cream, maybe a little vanilla. It’s so much fun.”

Originally from Abington, Pennsylvania, she summered in Margate as a child, eventually moving to Ocean City, were she grew up.

“The whole time growing up, I was like 10, was making cakes. That’s my background, desserts,” she says.

It was her grandmother who would make delicious breakfasts with strawberries, she recalls of the baker who passed her love of sweets to her granddaughter. When Lloyd got older, she got a job in real estate which she found not to her liking.

“Every lunch hour I would come over to Dairy Queen in Somer Point and eat whatever they had. It was wonderful. I had a Dilly Bars and then go back to work. And the man that was running it said, oh my gosh young lady you need to get your own ice cream place.”

It was more a premonition than she realized. She eventually married Bob, moved to Somers Point, then found a house off Ocean Heights where they decided to settle.

“My husband built this house but I said, there’s no ice cream, there’s just a house. So he built one in six months. It was because I love ice cream," she says.

Years later, Lloyd’s still has the same charm of a neighborhood ice cream stand, although now attracting customers from all over the area. She says she recently had a woman from Ocean City plan a party at Lloyd’s with pizza for the kids next door and ice cream at Lloyd’s.

“What makes us different is the fact that we have 24 flavors of soft serve, of blueberry, of vanilla, of peach. It’s a little labor intense but we do that,” she explains. “It’s so popular and no one else has it. We have amaretto, we have tutti fruity.”

She talks about seeing people stand in front of the big board in front of the stand trying to decide which flavor to choose. It is a tough choice and Lloyd has a suggestion.

“You can do anything you want to with vanilla. You can put strawberries in it, you can put blueberries," she says.

She’s proud of her team that runs the shop, who she says will make anything you like. She says it’s that customer service that also separates Lloyd’s from other places.

Most popular is Lloyd’s Fudge Brownie Delight. They start with a warm mini brownie, your choice of ice cream, pour on some hot fudge, walnuts if you want them, and top it with whipped cream, and a cherry.

“I would use chocolate ice cream but a lot of people like vanilla,” Lloyd says.

The most popular hard ice cream is mint chocolate chip and then vanilla, and moose tracks.

Deciding on her personal favorite, Lloyd has a difficult time choosing: “There’s so many. I like Moose Tracks, I like sweet and salty caramel. I like strawberry. I like the fudge brownie but I don’t want to get fat.”

They also offer Lloyd’s Swirly Freeze, their version of a Blizzard, with your choice of Oreo cookie pieces, or peanut butter cups, whatever chopped cookie or candy you’re in the mood for, blended up with your choice of ice cream.

She says they run raffles at times for gift baskets from the shop that will attract hundreds of entries. “No one else does that. People love contests. I do too,” she says.

Lloyd recalls an event in 2015 when she hosted a benefit for Alex’s Lemonade. They created a giant ice cream trough and invited people to have as much ice cream as they liked for a donation. The benefit raised a substantial amount and was even featured in The Press.

And look for Lloyd’s to get bigger. She talks about plans on making an inside area in the future. They stay open into October, depending on the weather.

Lloyd takes an almost Zen-like approach to why she loves ice cream so much.

“To me it’s a moment, like people love their coffee, I like ice cream. It’s a moment to sit there, be quiet, not talk and enjoy yourself. Just a simple pleasure. You’re not running around the world, you’re just sitting there enjoying your ice cream whether it’s in a cone or in a cup, a dish. It’s nothing major, just time to relax.”