The original Luther’s Scoops shop in Brunswick was broken almost from the day it opened, in early 2021.

“We outgrew that pretty quickly, which wasn’t hard to do, given the size of it,” founder Christian Williams tells Broadsheet. “And we couldn’t get three-phase power without upgrading the whole block, which would have been hundreds of thousands of dollars. Basically, all good ice-cream equipment runs on three-phase.”

Despite this, Luther’s ice-cream (as opposed to gelato) quickly shot to the top of the Melbourne rankings – the butterscotch ripple flavour especially. Other fan faves include banoffee pie, Earl Grey chocolate and brown butter cheesecake.

Stay in the know with our free newsletter. The latest restaurants, must-see exhibitions, style trends, travel spots and more – curated by those who know.

SIGN UP

This success led to a production kitchen in Reservoir, which for almost two years now has been churning out all the stock for both Brunswick and the six-month-old Thornbury outlet.

Now this “factory outlet” has opened to the public permanently, with exclusive flavours and bulk discounts for take-home tubs. The shop’s cheery interior and furniture were designed by Jerome Lewis and nicely complement the original “hot-lava-coloured” tiles uncovered when Luther’s first moved into the former Chinese takeaway shop.

The three-person kitchen crew works with a pastry roller, a nut grinder, two 120-litre pasteurisers and two 15-litre churners. “It was a dream,” Williams says, shouting out the walk-in freezer, which means the team can churn huge batches well ahead of time, rather than the old way of making just enough to last through the following day.

The larger kitchen also makes Luther’s renowned triple-chocolate cookies and is about to ramp up production of its sweet pies heading into winter. The first flavour will be a classic apple, made with two cooking varieties (Bramley’s and London Pippins) grown by Zooie’s Apples on the Mornington Peninsula.

That’s about it for the site, though. “We’ve already reached capacity,” Williams says, seemingly foreshadowing an even bigger production kitchen in the foreseeable future. In the meantime, he’s keen to trial cruller ice-cream sangas back in Thornbury, using the deep-fryer he inherited from previous tenant Kenny Lover, also an ice-cream shop.

Luther’s Scoops Reservoir
938 High Street, Reservoir
No phone

Hours
Sun–Thu midday–10pm
Fri & Sat midday–10.30pm

luthers.com.au/