In historic Old Towne Petersburg, a sugary pink facade beckons customers in. Inside sits a shiny new addition to the historic district — Alter Ice Cream. 

Alter is the newest offering from Corey and Lori Bullock, the couple behind the Petersburg-based dining popup Euterra. With an early January opening, the gourmet, small-batch ice cream shop offers a vibrant and ever-changing menu of sweet treats and espresso items.

Though Corey says the Bullocks had long dreamed of opening an ice cream shop, the birth of Alter Ice Cream came in the midst of another endeavor. The pair had spent the last several years working towards opening a storefront for Euterra. While navigating the logistical obstacles that come with establishing a restaurant, the Bullocks decided to redirect their attention to getting their ice cream shop off the ground before revisiting their original project.

Corey and Lori’s culinary background is evident in the imaginative gourmet flavors that populate their menu. Corey — who has previously worked as a chef at Quirk Hotel and Longoven — says almost all of the ice cream additions are made in-house, like the homemade ricotta base and cannoli shells found in their limoncello cannoli flavor. Another menu offering — their rosemary, shortbread and fig jam ice cream — is made with wild figs that they had foraged themselves.

Many of the options on Alter’s menu are informed by the culinary profile of Euterra and Corey’s background as a professional chef. Even the ephemeral nature of the pop-up is mirrored in Alter, where flavors are swapped out regularly depending on ingredient availability. Corey says the ice cream spot serves as a sweet counterpart to Euterra — its name serves as both a reference to ice cream’s mood-lifting abilities and a subtle nod to their culinary double lives.

“At first we were thinking more of a muted palette, because our other thing, Euterra, is very ochre, and has a natural palette,” Corey says. “It’s all about the earth. But then we came up with the name ‘Alter,’ because it’s kind of like, alter your mood, alter your dopamine levels. But also, Alter was supposed to be the alter ego of Euterra. Because Euterra was so serious and natural, we wanted to do something that was playful and bright and crazy.”

Outside of their businesses, Corey and Lori are both visual artists. The couple’s artistic skill is evident not only in their creative ice cream menu, but also in the carefully curated vibe of the shop. The pair undertook the space’s renovation themselves, painting the walls bubblegum pink and installing a black-and-white checkered floor that evokes a classic, mid-century ice cream parlor.

For a fun and creative flourish, the interior wall features cheeky re-imaginings of famous art pieces. One painting resembles Magritte’s “Son of Man” but includes an ice cream cone where the green apple should be. Right next to it sits Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” who holds a frozen treat and hides behind a cartoon smiley face.

“All the art is art that we made,” Corey says. “It’s either thrift store art that we painted over, or art we took and altered—to go with the name—and a lot of the frames are over 100 years old, but they’re all original old frames from antique shops around here.”

Behind the counter, their menu display features a zoomed-in print of Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam,” which shows the hands of Adam and God almost touching in the middle of the frame. It’s immediately recognizable, only this rendition features a third hand, reaching up the middle from the bottom and holding a perfectly scooped cone of ice cream. The image is decorative, but perhaps also serves as a reminder to customers that they are witnessing and participating in an exciting act of creation.

One might think that early January is an unconventional time to open an ice cream shop. However, for many customers, it seems that hot weather wasn’t necessary to enjoy a cold treat — Corey says that family, friends, and members of the community showed out, making for a successful opening weekend.

“Petersburg is a very tight-knit community, so everybody kind of leans on each other, and supports everyone down here,” Corey says. “This place is kind of like a little hamlet. We had people coming from Richmond and Midlothian and Chesterfield and all that. But still,  there was a lot of community support. They definitely embraced it as something new and awesome.”

Moving forward, Corey and Lori plan to continue experimenting with flavors and hope to partner with other chefs and local businesses to source unique ingredients. Corey says they hope to serve not only their tight-knit community in Petersburg, but also ice cream lovers near and far.

“We’re going to need, not only our little community, because we have a very small community, but everyone else around us to take notice and see that there’s something cool going on down here,” Corey says.

Alter Ice Cream (122 W Tabb St., Petersburg) is open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday-Sunday.