The Best Ice Cream & Desserts in Dodge County, Wisconsin — and Why Sweet Pea's Might Just Ruin You for Everywhere Else

Wisconsin takes its desserts seriously. Always has. Whether it's a Friday night fish fry ending with a slice of pie, a summer road trip detour for a legendary scoop, or a fall afternoon at the orchard — people here know what good tastes like. And they're not shy about driving for it.

Come find out why at Sweet Pea's.

We're a Treat Shop in Mayville, Wisconsin, and what that means in practice is this: walk in with a group where one person wants pie, one person is dairy-free, one person needs gluten-free, and one person just wants the most over-the-top ice cream shake they've ever seen — and everyone leaves happy. That's not an accident. It's the whole point.

Wisconsin-Made Super-Premium Ice Cream at Sweet Pea's in Mayville

We serve Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream, and if you've spent any time in Madison, you already know the name. Founded in Wisconsin's capital city, Chocolate Shoppe holds the distinction of being a super-premium ice cream — and that's not just marketing language. Super-premium is an actual grade, defined by higher butterfat content, lower overrun (less air churned in), and denser, creamier results in every single scoop.

Their motto? If you want nutrition, eat carrots.

We respect that kind of honesty. Chocolate Shoppe doesn't pretend to be a health food. What they do instead is put serious time, money, and craft into making ice cream that is genuinely extraordinary — loaded with inclusions, packed with flavor, and made to satisfy rather than compromise. They've also been quietly transitioning to natural colors, which we think says something about how a company operates when nobody's watching.

16 Flavors of Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream, Hand-Dipped in Mayville WI

We hand-dip 16 flavors at a time, and while the rotating selection keeps things interesting, a few anchors never leave.

You'll always find Zanzibar Chocolate — deep, complex, and nothing like the flat chocolate ice cream you've had everywhere else. You'll always find Old Fashioned Vanilla, which sounds simple until you taste it and realize most vanilla ice cream has been lying to you your whole life. And you'll always find This $&@! Just Got Serious®, which, yes, is exactly what it sounds like, and yes, it delivers on every bit of that promise.

Beyond the constants, the rotating case covers the full spread — peanut butter, fruit, nut, mint, cookie, coffee, oat-based, kids' flavors, seasonal, and vegan options that don't taste like a consolation prize.

Vegan, Dairy-Free & Gluten-Free Dessert Options in Mayville, Wisconsin

Ice cream is only part of the picture. Sweet Pea's carries gluten-free and vegan cookies and cakes in-shop, so there's something on the counter for people who can't do dairy or gluten no matter what kind of treat they're after. And then there are our açaí smoothie bowls — made with an organic açaí base, fresh fruit cut to order, and our own homemade granola, which is both gluten-free and vegan. They're genuinely good enough to be the reason someone makes the drive, not just a fallback option. If your version of a treat leans more toward something fresh and nourishing than rich and indulgent, we planned for that too.

Sweet Pea's Waffle Cones Are Made From an Original Recipe — and Customers Notice

A lot of ice cream shops use store-bought cones or a standard mix. We don't. Our waffle cones are made from an original recipe that comes out light, crispy, and closer to a vanilla cookie than the heavy, overpowering cones you're probably used to. The whole idea is that the cone should complement the ice cream — not compete with it. When the flavors are as good as Chocolate Shoppe's, the last thing you want is a cone that gets in the way.

Once you've had it, a regular cone feels like a step down.

Ice Cream Shakes in Mayville, Wisconsin — Including a Shake of the Month

Our shake of the month gets people talking every single time. Some of the crowd favorites that have come through — the Orange Dreamsicle (orange sherbet, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, candy orange slices, and an orange Milano cookie), the Better than a Shamrock shake, and the Craving Caramel Apple — have the kind of following that shows up specifically because they saw it posted and couldn't stop thinking about it. Check our Google Business page to see what's in the case this month.

We also build ice cream cakes — and those you can actually order online if you want to plan ahead.

The Best Pie in Dodge County Wisconsin — Scratch-Made at Sweet Pea's

Sweet Pea's started as a pie shop. Scratch-made, from-scratch-crust, don't-skip-the-caramel-sauce pie. And if you've found us because you're looking for dessert in Dodge County, you should know that pie is still very much what we're known for.

We're from Minnesota originally — grew up knowing how iconic Betty's Pies is up on the North Shore, how people detour for the Norske Nook in Osseo. We hope someday Sweet Pea's grows into that kind of legend. We're working on it.

In the meantime, we keep hearing from customers who went to Door County for the weekend and made a beeline back to us for pie on their way home. We hear from people who spent a week in Florida, bought eight slices of Key Lime pie at places their hotel recommended, came home disappointed, and then showed up at our counter asking if we had Key Lime. We did. They said it fixed everything. We'll take it.

If you're curious about shipping pie, we've got a whole guide on that. And if you want to go deeper on what makes Wisconsin's pie culture worth celebrating, we wrote about that too.

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Ice Cream & Desserts Near Horicon Marsh — Open Year-Round

Sweet Pea's is right in downtown Mayville — 4 S Main Street — which puts us about five miles from Horicon, just minutes from the Horicon Marsh, and roughly twenty minutes from Fond du Lac, Beaver Dam, West Bend, Hartford, and Waupun.

If you're heading to the Marsh (and if you're a birder, you already know why that's a bucket list destination), we're an easy detour. Same goes for anyone coming through for the EAA in Oshkosh, a weekend at Road America in Elkhart Lake, a round of golf, or a visit to Holy Hill. And if you're making a fall day of it with a stop at Tom Dooley's Apple Orchard in Waupun, we're right on the way back.

We're open Wednesday through Sunday, year-round. That last part matters — because not every great dessert spot in the area can say the same.

One of our regular customers put it better than we could. Kiki used to stop in every time she drove through Mayville on her way home from work. She'd get the ice cream sandwich — chocolate chip or sugar cookie, her choice of flavor — and she said the interaction with the owner was always a highlight. She doesn't drive that route anymore and told us she misses the place. We miss her too, Kiki. Come back anytime.

We're proud of our 4.9 stars. We'd love to here from you after your visit. Click here to leave Sweet Pea's a review on Google!