Vintage ice cream scoop.

I remember we used to have one of these in our house.

From family owned to nationally known, Andia's Ice Cream has unique flavors that every family can enjoy.

Rick Sullivan shares their fantastic story.

- [Rick] In less than a decade, Andia's Ice Cream has grown from a small shop in Cary to a nationally acclaimed premium ice cream business with multiple locations in the Triangle, and an ever-growing cult of Andia's Ice Cream lovers.

What flavor did you get?

- I got birthday cake with whipped cream and gummy bears.

- [Rick] And what's her name, Dad?

- Cora.

- Cora.

How old?

- [Father] She's two and a half.

- [Rick] What flavor did she get today?

- [Father] Cantaloupe sorbet.

- [Rick] And you?

- This is cotton candy.

- [Rick] Have you had it before?

- Oh, yeah.

We're regulars.

- It's honestly a dream come true.

It has been an incredible, incredible journey, and it is more than we could have ever imagined for.

It just fulfills our heart, and we keep saying, like, why did it take us so long to figure this out, you know?

- [Rick] Andia Xouris is Greek, born in Cyprus.

Her husband, George, born in New York, is also of Greek descent.

They both love foods, like ice cream, and family.

Long story short, George started the idea for an ice cream shop, and she has taken it to the next level.

- I am a grand master ice cream maker, only one of 15 in the country, and that is through the North American Ice Cream Association and Cornell University.

- [Rick] Andia's Ice Cream has won so many national awards for its flavors in such a short time that it's been getting as much attention across the country as it does right here at the local shops around the Triangle.

- We've been on "Good Morning America", our milkshakes, we have these monster shakes that we call Andia Shakes, and they have won top three shakes in the country from "Good Morning America".

We've been featured on "USA Today" top four ice cream shops.

We're in the running again this year, so I'm incredibly honored.

And we ship our ice cream, by the way, on goldbelly.com, to all 50 states.

- [Rick] So, if you wanna order some for Uncle Vinny in California or Aunt Betty in Kalamazoo, you can do, but first, you'll wanna taste it to be sure it's all that.

- Wait a minute.

- [Rick] My wife, Lisa, is sampling butter toffee popcorn.

- Mm, that is awesome.

- [Rick] Who would've thought mixing popcorn into ice cream was a good idea?

- Yum.

- Caramelly, popcorny, toffee-y.

- [Rick] Andia Xouris would.

- Very delicious.

- That is one of my personal passions, is to be able to create the new flavors, and so I'm hoping that for as long as I'm running my company, that I will be the R&D chef.

I still love that very, very much, and that's where I'm able to just kind of let loose and let my creative, you know, juices start flowing, and come up with different ideas.

- [Rick] More than 20 flavors of ice cream are available at any given time, with six or seven new flavors rotating in every month.

There are ethnic favorites with popular ingredients from Greece and India and other cultures.

And if the flavors sound amazing, they are, check out the gourmet concoctions being served beyond your typical cups and cones.

- We have our what we call our Classic Shakes, which is just a regular 20 ounce shake, and it has one topping on it, like whipped cream or Hershey syrup.

- [Rick] Just one size, 20 ounces?

- Yes.

[chuckles] - 20 ounces or bust.

- It's a lot.

Exactly.

So then we have our monster size Andia Shakes.

They come in a beautiful glass jar that's taken home as a souvenir, with our logo on it.

- [Rick] And what flavor is this?

- [Server] This is our cake batter for our Batter Up Shake.

- Our Batter Up that has three mini cupcakes on it.

We have another one with cookie dough bites on it.

So, it's a lot of fun, and you could collect all four different shakes while you try them.

- [Rick] Good luck with that.

One shake is a meal replacement.

Fantastic flavors and other creative offerings make Andia's unique, but at the end of the day, Andia herself hopes the greatest reason customers come to her family's Triangle shops is for something more than just the food.

- One of the things that George and I talk about all the time, and we make sure that our team knows, we have over 80 people on staff now, is how grateful we are.

We'll never, ever forget our roots.

And we honestly cannot run a business like this without every single person on my team, so, all of our customers, they're known as guests in our shops, we always say, "Welcome to Andia's," and part of that is for them, we want them to know where they are.

It's a local company.

It'll never be anything more than a local company.

Even if it has a national reach now, it's still going to be always a Cary based, Raleigh based company.

- Andia's Ice Cream has three locations, West Cary, Southeast Cary, and Raleigh.

Their hours vary between locations, so check them out online at andiasicecream.com.