Artis Henderson

Special to The News-Press

Joey’s Custard opened on Sanibel in June 2016, and since then its owner, Joey Almeida, has gone about turning the ice cream, coffee and sandwich shop into an all-day island spot.

“I grew up here,” Almeida, who celebrated his 25th birthday this month, says.

“I always wanted to be able to open a store out here, to provide a place where people could come and hang out. I was raised out here going to places like Doc Ford’s and Schnapper’s.”

Almeida was born in Buffalo, New York, but went to school on Sanibel from kindergarten through eighth grade. He attended Bishop Verot High School and after graduating spent four years in the Army. When he got out of the military in 2015, a yogurt shop in the same plaza as Bailey’s General Store went up for sale.

“My mom called me about it,” Almeida says. “They were old friends of hers, and they wanted to retire. So we bought it.”

The family is no stranger to the restaurant business. When he was 10 years old, Almeida’s family opened the first Starz Pizzeria in south Fort Myers. They soon expanded to three locations.

“My whole life has been restaurants and the process of opening them, getting them off the ground,” Almeida says.

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And he’s bringing that know-how to Joey’s Custard as he expands from an ice cream shop to an all-day breakfast, lunch, coffee and sweets place.

His menu currently features craft sandwiches such as the Caprese made with basil pesto, fresh mozzarella and tomato on a ciabatta roll, and The Strand with peppered bacon, smoked Gouda and raspberry-jalapeño jam on sourdough bread. All of Joey’s sandwiches are made to order using all natural meats and cheeses.

Starting in January the shop will offer breakfast sandwiches plus bagels and cream cheese.

But ice cream is still Joey's main focus.

Over the last year Almeida has expanded from eight flavors to 30 with plans to increase to 50 next year. He sources his ice cream from a small-batch family operation in St. Petersburg that uses real cream and real sugar and no high fructose corn syrup.

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“You taste the difference,” Almeida says. “As soon as I became an owner, I wanted to carry the the best stuff I could find. It’s the best ice cream I've ever tried, and other people agree.”

His most popular flavors are salted-caramel praline, espresso chip, cappuccino Kahlua and Cookie Monster made with blue vanilla ice cream, Oreos and cookie dough bites.

“We can get quirky,” he says, laughing.

The shop also has non-dairy and sugar-free ice cream and sorbet options.

“My whole thing is, being a millennial, you have to have something for everybody,” Almeida says. “You can’t leave anybody out.”

Off the Eaten Path highlights local, independent restaurants throughout Southwest Florida, the strip-mall and side-street places we pass everyday.

Artis Henderson is a freelance writer and author, her first book earned a New York Times Editors’ Choice; find her at artishenderson.com and on Twitter.

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If you go

Joey’s Custard

Where: 2467 Periwinkle Way, Sanibel

Hours: 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 8 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday

Prices: Most ice cream $4-$8, sandwiches $6-$12, coffee $2-$5

Call: 472-7222

More: facebook.com/joeyscustard