Winegar'sCoffee & Creamery
Winegar'sCoffee & Creamery
Three generations in the making — and the fourth is just starting to get their hands dirty alongside the third.
Truman and Phoebe Winegar started dairying on the Ellensburg farm in 1956. In 1960 they sold every milking female but one to build a modern milking parlor, a small bottling plant, and a retail store — and from that single cow grew a herd of more than sixty Holsteins, with nearly all the milk sold right at the farm store.
The Winegars will still tell you: just like water out of a garden hose, milk fresh from the cow — or out of a glass bottle — simply tastes better.
The founding generation begins milking on the Ellensburg farm.
One cow, a new milking parlor, a bottling plant, and a retail store — the family bet everything on doing it themselves.
The father-son partnership drives the herd to become the third highest producing dairy herd in Washington State by 1974.
Truman and Phoebe retire; Gary and Margo grow "Winegar Family Dairy," remodel the plant, and keep the glass bottles alongside the new plastic.
Fresh out of Central Washington University, Richelle learns from northwest ice cream guru Bud Haxby. The first-ever flavor: Nutty Truman — maple and walnuts, named for Grandpa. "A taste of home, one lick at a time" is born.
The youngest of Gary and Margo's kids comes aboard — preferring the afternoon milking shift, and soon carrying the espresso side that would become his life's work.
The family opens on the corner of 7th and Main; espresso takes off and the ice cream keeps growing.
With the city grown close around the farm, the family sells the Holstein herd and pours everything into ice cream and espresso. Gary had spent his whole life with cows — the family chose the future without forgetting where it came from.
A new Winegar's on the corner of University and Alder — still pouring and scooping there today.
Winegar's @ University & Alder and Winegar's @ Jerrol's — with the fourth generation already getting their hands dirty, and everything still made the Winegar way.
The Winegar Way isn't traditional — it's about making people happy and paying tribute to the people who matter. Every ice cream flavor is named for our family or for the Kittitas Valley: Rocky Rodeo tips its hat to the Ellensburg Rodeo, Phoebe's Strawberry honors Grandma, and Kori's Coffee began with the very first espresso shots ever pulled in the store.
Meet all the flavors