Through 40 years and a pandemic, this Sacramento ice cream shop keeps churning
The enduring image of the founding father of one of Sacramento County’s tasty pillars in the food business is of an old man with a kindly roundish face riding his bike.
Dave Leatherby pedaled down Arden Way, on his way to work, with rosary beads in one hand and a blue apron on his chest that read, “Daddy Dave.” He waved at cars and grinned at reciprocal honks.
”That was our Dad, the leader, having a good time with who and what he was,” said Alan Leatherby, a son of the man who created Leatherby’s Family Creamery nearly 40 years ago with the goals of family, food and fun.
Added another son, Dave Jr., with a smile, “I think Mom was a little embarrassed by Dad on his bike like that, but we all got a laugh out of it.”
Daddy Dave created the Leatherby’s chain with his father, Al, in 1982 because he wanted to impact his community, much like his family-run cafe in Iowa decades earlier when he was growing up. He wanted a place where he and the 10 children of wife Sally — his sweetheart since they were 12 years old — could work and enjoy a sampling of life’s full menu.
He died just over a year ago, after a fight with pneumonia at 81, but the three Leatherby’s locations in Sacramento County live on beyond a sundae or burger that bears his Daddy Dave name.
With family running each restaurant, the intent remains to serve ice cream for all settings and seasons, and to navigate through the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic that has hammered down hard on small businesses across the state.
Daddy Dave’s sons Alan and Dave Jr. oversee all of the operations. Their sons run individual stores, including Matt Leatherby (son of Dave Jr.) in Elk Grove and Jake Leatherby (son of Alan) at Arden. The sons work these restaurants out of family obligation and the joy of being around people. The perks aren’t too bad, either.
All of the Leatherby men share the same warm mannerisms and the gift of gab of Daddy Dave. Streams of customers know the Leatherbys by their first names. And the family grows. Matt and Jake are fourth-generation Leatherbys. There are more coming. Dave and Sally have more than 30 grandchildren and 40 great grandchildren. Some 140 Leatherby nieces and nephews have either eaten regularly at these stores, worked there, or both.
Loyalty and ice cream
The rewards of hard work, of customer service, of good food and desert have been plentiful and profitable since the first store opened. It is that reputation that has allowed the three places to hang on. Customers are loyal to their favorite spots. With nearly 300 employees at the three restaurants, the pandemic led to some layoffs.
Places like this cannot sustain long term with a reduction in sales. To really enjoy ice cream — say, at a reunion, a birthday party, a graduation or just because — is best done inside, not delivered by DoorDash.The atmosphere is amplified at a Leatherby’s with the black-and-white checkered floors, family and friends or dates squeezed into booths or rod-iron classic ice cream chairs. It’s all like a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting.
The first wave from COVID-19 in the spring resulted in all California restaurants suspending indoor dining. A resumption of indoor dining helped boost business, and then more hurdles appeared. Earlier this week, the Leatherby family braced for all on-premises dining to cease as COVID-19 numbers continue to climb. It has already led to shut-down orders from Gov. Gavin Newsom in other areas of the state.
Alan and Dave Leatherby Jr. are concerned. So are their sons who run their restaurants. Everyone in this line of work is worried.
”All we can do is adapt the best we can,” Dave Jr. said. “It’s not easy. It’s taken a toll, but we hope and expect to be OK.”
Alan Leatherby talks to customers. He sees their hurt and feels their hurt. They feel and see his.
“Everyone in small business is feeling the pandemic,” Alan Leatherby said. “Everyone is struggling. The emotions are raw. People are tired of being cooped up. Kids don’t want to be stuck at home. The whole community is struggling, and it’s hard to see.”
He added, “All business owners are used to having to reinvent themselves. In our line, you’re only as good as the last customer served. We closed up during the pandemic, and we worried about staff and customers and our business and livelihood. But my father always said we want to be the beacon of positive things in our community, and we still are.
“People are scared, nerves are raw, and people want stability in their lives. Sometimes, going out for a milkshake or ice cream helps. It’s comfort food, and this family, our family, is always here to serve. We’re not going anywhere. So many have come in to continue to support us that it brings us to tears.”
Reinventing oneself for the Leatherbys included first-time curbside service and outdoor dining in the parking lot. Leatherby’s never did DoorDash before but has seen nice results
”The county health department has come by here and complimented us for doing it the right way, with dividers between each table and booth, mobile partitions, spacing,” Alan Leatherby said. “We’ve tried to go above and beyond to make sure we’re complying and being safe.”
The pandemic hasn’t kept Sally Leatherby, wife of Daddy Dave, away. At 82, she regularly stops by to check in, to talk to staffers and customers. She still savors her favorite flavor of ice cream: vanilla. Never mind the 40 other flavors. She embraces the simple stuff, her sons say.
Simple beginnings
Well before he became known as Daddy Dave, David Leatherby Sr. made a good living in the 1960s and ‘70s as an appliance salesman in Southern California.
But sales didn’t soothe his zest for a family business, and he tired of the Los Angeles traffic. No one rides a bike in bumper-to-bumper chaos with an apron, no matter how effective the rosary beads.
By the time their 10th child arrived, Daddy Dave and Sally started to brainstorm. Why not a family creamery, and get everyone named Leatherby involved? It’s grown to the point that Leatherby’s is as recognized a restaurant name as there is in the Sacramento region. It helps that Leatherby’s has been a giver to nonprofits, to schools, to churches, to the needy, for decades.
“I was doing construction the summer Dad was ready to open Leatherby’s in 1982,” Alan Leatherby said. “Told my boss that I was going to quit to join the family business and he said, ‘Your family will go broke. What you’re doing is lunacy, absurd. It’ll never work.’ Well, it worked.”
He added, ”I go to the grocery store over the years now and the checker sees my bank card and asks, ‘Are you related to the ice cream parlor people?’ It started with Dad. He was everyone’s friend. His funeral was so inspiring. A homeless man in wrinkled clothes was there. Dad talked to that man at Mass a lot and the man wanted to pay respects. I think Dad would be proud of how we’ve been able to hold out, that we still help people smile.”
The Citrus Heights Leatherby’s started in 1984, originally located in south Sacramento. The Elk Grove store opened nine years ago.
Arden general manager Jake Leatherby is 28. He grew up in this setting, and what a cool gig to have as a kid: sweep floors and then pick a flavor.
At places like this, memories are made. Some relationships start over a sundae dripping of caramel, with one spoon and locked glazed expressions. Jake met his wife Danielle through Leatherby’s. Now their two young children wonder what flavor ice cream Dad will bring home.
”Many of my aunts and uncles met spouses here,” Jake Leatherby said. “Places like this make life enjoyable.”
Jake Leatherby let out a deep sigh in the Arden restaurant. The place was empty during the lunch hour, no thanks to the COVID-based restrictions, when it normally booms.
“We know we have to adapt to the changes,” Jake Leatherby said. “It’s difficult. It’s hard, and there’s no way around it. We still want to give some sort of joy to people’s lives, and what better joy is there than ice cream?”
Such treats are what keeps Nancy Snider coming back to the Arden store, day after day, year after year.
”I come every single day, even for the curbside,” she said. “I come because these are wonderful people with a wonderful product, and besides, it tastes good.”
Tell us more
Know of a mom-and-pop operation navigating through these challenging times? A restaurant, a hardware store, a book store, a bar? Email your idea to jpatrick@sacbee.com and jdavidson@sacbee.com.
This story was originally published December 9, 2020 at 5:00 AM.