The Whole Scoop

The Whole Scoop has been a fixture of the Village at Brock’s Gap in Hoover for fifteen years, celebrating that milestone anniversary in February of 2026. The shop is owned and run by Sue and David Cohen, a Hoover couple who brought very different professional backgrounds to the ice cream business. Sue works as a registered nurse with a local home health agency, while David spent years as a hospitality professional and also served as an adjunct professor at Jefferson State Community College. Together, along with their two children, the family has built one of Hoover’s most beloved neighborhood ice cream shops.

The Whole Scoop’s tagline says it plainly: ice cream, the way it’s supposed to be. That philosophy plays out in a shop that feels distinctly like a family business rather than a franchise outlet. Customer photos line the walls, decorated spoons are on display, and the seating is designed to be comfortable and accessible for kids, giving the shop a warm, local feeling that regulars come back for again and again. It is the kind of place where staff learn customers’ names and favorite flavors over the years, something that is increasingly rare among ice cream retailers in the Birmingham suburbs.

The menu centers on hand dipped ice cream scooped from forty four rotating flavor tubs, available as kids, single, double, or triple scoops in a cup or a cone for four dollars and seventy five cents. Sundae lovers have plenty of options too, including a banana split for seven fifty, a turtle sundae for six seventy five, a moon pie sundae for six seventy five, or a design your own sundae for the same price. Milkshake fans can order flavors like creamsicle or peppermint patty, or build a custom combination, all for six seventy five. For celebrations, The Whole Scoop also makes custom ice cream cakes starting at forty dollars, including a cookies and cream with chocolate option and a chocolate peanut butter and snickeripple combination, along with a fully custom design your own option.

What makes The Whole Scoop stand out in a category increasingly dominated by national frozen yogurt and ice cream chains is its longevity and its ownership story. Fifteen years is a long run for any small food business, and the Cohens have managed to keep the shop feeling fresh and community focused the entire time, all while raising their own family in the neighborhood the shop serves. That kind of staying power does not happen by accident. It comes from consistently delivering a quality product and treating every visit like it matters, whether it is a child’s first ice cream cone or a family stopping in after a Friday night football game at nearby Hoover High School.

Located at 1021 Brock’s Gap Parkway in the Village at Brock’s Gap, The Whole Scoop remains one of the clearest examples of what a genuinely independent, family run dessert business can look like in a suburban market like Hoover. For anyone searching for a locally owned alternative to the drive thru ice cream chains along Highway 150 or John Hawkins Parkway, this shop has earned its reputation one scoop at a time over a decade and a half.

Fifteen years also means The Whole Scoop has now served multiple generations of the same Hoover families, from parents who first brought their own kids in for an after school cone to those same kids now bringing children of their own. That kind of multi-generational loyalty is rare for any small business, let alone one competing against ice cream chains with national advertising budgets and drive thru convenience. The Cohens have built that loyalty the old fashioned way, by showing up, keeping quality consistent, and treating the shop as a genuine extension of their own family rather than just a place of business.

The Village at Brock’s Gap has grown into a popular shopping and dining destination in Hoover, and The Whole Scoop has remained one of its most consistent draws even as newer restaurants and retailers have moved in and out of the surrounding storefronts over the years. That stability says something about how well the shop understands its role in the community, not as a trendy destination chasing the next viral dessert, but as a dependable neighborhood spot that residents can count on for a quality scoop any night of the week.