Lagomarcino's Confectionery

Lagomarcino's Confectionery is an ice cream shop and chocolate maker in Moline, IL, serving the Quad Cities area with boxed chocolates, a soda fountain, custom orders, and online shipping. The family-owned business has been operating since 1908 and draws on a menu that traces back to its turn-of-the-century roots as a confectionery and soda parlor. It holds a rating of 4.80 based on 1,422 reviews.

The business traces its origins to Angelo Lagomarcino, who journeyed from northern Italy to New York City in 1896, returned to Italy to marry Luigia Schenone in 1902, and then settled in the United States, where he worked with his brother Carl in a confectionery near the Burlington Railroad station in Burlington, Iowa. After starting his family there, Angelo found his own location in early 1908 in downtown Moline. The shop's early customers included theatergoers from the seven theaters once within walking distance, who came in for ice cream sodas, malted milks, and the house hot fudge sundaes, including creations such as the Butter Kist Almond, Dream Daddy, Hawaiian Twilight, and Black Cherry Banana Special. The current menu extends to sandwiches, salads, homemade pie, and fountain drinks, while the retail side offers bulk chocolate, assortments, nuts, bark, gift stacks, seasonal items, and the shop's famous hot fudge. The Moline location operates Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with table service ending at 5:00 p.m., and a second storefront operates in the East Village of Davenport.

The Moline shop sits on 5th Avenue in downtown Moline, about a tenth of a mile from Ericsson Elementary School and roughly a quarter mile from River Drive and 4th Avenue. Stephens Park and the Deere-Wiman House are both under half a mile away.

The business has earned recognition beyond its hometown reviews, including the 2006 James Beard Foundation America's Classic Award, and has been singled out by National Geographic Traveler as the best old-fashioned ice cream parlor in the world and by Illinois Magazine for best homemade candy in the state in 2002. Founded by an Italian immigrant family and now more than a century old, Lagomarcino's remains a fixture of downtown Moline's dining scene.