PEORIA MAGAZINE July 2022

M O M A N D P O P

I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM, WE ALL SCREAM FOR… …Uncle Bob’s Eureka-based, now ubiquitous ice cream

BY BOB GRIMSON PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

S tarting in the late 1970s with equipment borrowed from an Amish business in Arthur, Bob Bally helped his church craft homemade ice cream for the famed Mennonite Relief Sale, held in Peoria at that time. Before long, demand outstripped supply. “We would go morning to night making ice cream,” said Bally, noting that his two ice cream makers had but a 20-quart capacity. So, he handcrafted a couple more: “We doubledproduction andwere able to keep up with the crowds.”

you can find it in the heart of Amish country at a shop in Arthur. The company also has been honored with Grand Champion status for dairy products at the Illinois State Fair. Not bad for a career financial planner and farmer who was just looking to fill his summers with a little extra income and provide a learning experience for his three children – Ian, Emily and Ben – all from a trailer that made countless trips to fairs and festivals. Today, at age 66, Bob Bally has stepped away from daily

Bob Bally

From those humble beginnings grew a mini-ice cream empire that today sells its product at multiple central Illinois grocery stores, from major chains including Hy-Vee and IGA to locally owned operations such as Alwan & Sons Meat Company in Peoria Heights and Lindy’s DowntownMarket in Washington. Uncle Bob’s is even featured at local watering holes such as Kelleher’s and W.E. Sullivan’s. Meanwhile, you can take the big dip at Uncle Bob’s home base ice cream parlor in Eureka and, in a tip to its roots,

involvement at the business he found ed, though he’s a familiar presence at the shop, tinkering with the equipment, maintaining the property. Of the kids, only Ben is still actively involved, running day-to-day operations. He knew even before business degrees from Illinois Central College and Auburn University that ice creamwas his career road, although it was rocky at times. “My senior project (at Auburn), we had to do a business plan,” said Ben. “So, of course, I did it on this. I got my grade and had my life plan.”

As the Relief Sale was an annual event, that left the machines idle for the rest of the year. So, in 1980, he had the “wild idea” to set up a tent at the Heart of Illinois Fair. It was there that a helper, Thomas Studebaker, now a noted tenor who has performed nationwide, hung the “Uncle Bob” title on Bally as an inside joke. It stuck. “That was the start of Uncle Bob’s,” said Bally, “in a tent with hand-painted signs.”

76 JULY 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE