Graeter's Ice Cream opens first Chicago area ice cream shop

NORTHBROOK, Ill. (WLS) -- It's an eternal argument: Who makes the best ice cream? According to many, the answer is Graeter's Ice Cream from Cincinnati, which will open its first shop in the Chicago area in Northbrook by the end of May.

"We've been making it for 145 years," says Chip Graeter, co-owner of Graeter's Ice Cream, "so hopefully we've learned something in that time."

Graeter's has been a family business since 1870, started by Chip's great-grandfather in Cincinnati.

"It was started by my great grandfather about 1870 in downtown Cincinnati in the market area," Graeter says of the business's origins. "He essentially had a pushcart."

The Northbrook shop and its soda fountain are still a work in progress but should be finished in a few weeks. Then the ice cream will arrive, all made using the "French pot method."

"It's the only way to make ice cream, I think," Graeter says. "We make two gallons at a time with a method we call 'French pot, and we think it produces the best ice cream there is."

One of things Graeter's is famous for is its famous admirers, which include Oprah and George Clooney.

And though many ice creams are fluffed up with up to 50 percent air, Graeter's is all ice cream and no air.