Our Story
Jatski’s Ice Cream began with two simple ideas: make genuine ice cream, and build a place where people want to stay awhile.
Our name comes from the spoken Finnish word jätski, a popular everyday word for ice cream. As American Finns, we wanted a name that celebrated our family’s heritage while still being distinctive here in North America. To us, Jatski’s means real ice cream made with care, tradition, and pride.
Real Ice Cream Melts
We believe ice cream should be simple, fresh, and honest. Real ice cream melts. It should. That’s one of the simple signs you’re enjoying something made fresh, not engineered to last longer than the moment.
We make our ice cream in small batches right here in our shop, using fresh dairy and as many locally sourced ingredients as possible. From cow to cone is often less than a week. Some favorite mix-ins, like Oreos®, Butterfinger®, and other classic treats, come from the brands everyone knows and loves. Everything else begins with our commitment to making genuine premium ice cream, one batch at a time.
Fresh Cones, All Day
Because great ice cream deserves a great cone, we make our waffle cones fresh on-site throughout the day. If you arrive while they’re baking, you’ll probably smell them before you even reach the counter. We think that’s exactly how an ice cream shop should welcome you.
Why Palatka?
People sometimes ask why we chose Palatka. The answer is simple: it reminds us of Florida the way we remember it. Our family has roots in Stuart and Jupiter, back when they were friendly small towns where neighbors knew one another and life moved at a slower pace. Palatka still has that feeling. It has history, character, and people who care about their community. It felt like home from the beginning, and we wanted to become part of that story.
The Jäätski Tonttu
You’ll also notice our little Finnish friend, the Jäätski Tonttu. In Finnish tradition, a tonttu is a friendly household spirit that watches over homes, workshops, barns, and the things people value most. Ours watches over the ice cream. You’ll find the Jäätski Tonttu throughout the shop, on our Name Day boards, and in many of our promotions. He’s our way of sharing a little piece of Finnish tradition with our neighbors here in Palatka.
A Place to Stay Awhile
As we planned Jatski’s, we weren’t just thinking about making great ice cream. We were thinking about the experience. Florida summers are hot. We wanted families to enjoy real ice cream in a cool, comfortable place where they could slow down, visit, and stay awhile. That’s why we built Jatski’s with indoor air-conditioned seating. We wanted more than a place to buy ice cream. We wanted to create a place where people could gather, celebrate, and make memories together.
That vision shaped everything from our production kitchen to our dining room. Every part of the shop was designed around making fresh ice cream on-site and giving our guests a place to truly enjoy it.
A Family Project
Jatski’s has truly been a family project. Every member of our family, husband and wife, sons and daughters, has contributed ideas, recipes, artwork, promotions, designs, construction, countless hours of work, and plenty of taste testing. Nearly every detail you’ll see around the shop reflects someone’s contribution.
From our Name Day traditions to our loyalty program, from the Jäätski Tonttu to every batch of ice cream we make, Jatski’s reflects the things our family genuinely enjoys and wants to share with yours.
We didn’t build Jatski’s to be the biggest ice cream shop. We built it to make the kind of ice cream we wish were still easy to find. The kind that’s made fresh, served with pride, enjoyed with family, and remembered long after the last scoop is gone.
We love Palatka. We love ice cream. And we’re honored to share a little Finnish tradition with our new hometown.
Welcome to Jatski’s.