New London — It’s easy to smile when you’re selling sweets.

That’s what Laura Beckham, the owner of Berry’s Ice Cream & Candy Bar at 90-B Bank St., says.

“It’s just amazing, it’s fun, you’re selling little drops of happiness,” says the native of Milledgeville, Georgia. “It’s just hard not to be upbeat when you’re in an ice cream shop.”

Beckham moved to New London about nine years ago and opened her sweet shop at 60 Bank St. with a partner in 2014. Her mother, the late Melodie Beckham, helped the two to run the business and in 2016 Beckham bought out her partner.

About a month ago, she moved her business a few doors down Bank Street to the former Roberts Audio building. The move has tripled the ice cream shop’s floor space and allowed Beckham to expand her offerings. The new location also includes a backdoor deck with sweeping views of the Thames River.

She’s renting the space and worked with property owner and contractor David Preka, owner of Advanced Improvements, to finish the interior to just how she wanted it. She’s decorated with her signature colors of purple, orange and green, and added additional sitting.

Now, in addition to the nostalgic candy and Connecticut-made Wildowsky Dairy hard-serve ice cream that she’s always sold, she’s added soft-serve flavors, a grilled cheese station, cold sandwiches, nachos and hot dogs, soups in season, and a coffee bar. She boasts that Berry’s floats coffee ice cubes in its iced coffee offerings.

For Beckham, the job is a labor of love. She’s committed to the community, and especially downtown New London. At first, she says, some people thought perhaps her southern accent and mannerisms might be a bit of a put-on.

“You know, that southern politeness, that syrupy sweet southern charm, to some people, it came across as disingenuous,” she says.

But all that has changed. Berry’s has thrived for more than four years and, with the new location, the business that used to close in the winter months will stay open year-round. She attributes her success to exceptional customer service, being a committed member of the community, and serving high-quality products.

She’s got a college degree in graphic arts and has worked many different jobs, but the 42-year-old said Berry’s was her first business and she welcomed all the good advice she could get when she started it.

She shared her business plan with the Meriden-based Community Economic Development Fund, which provides loans to small businesses in the state, primarily in low- to moderate-income communities, who are not able to obtain traditional financing. The loan wasn’t big, but it was enough. And, CEDF connected Berry’s to Wildowsky’s Dairy, the small Lisbon farm that makes and sells its own ice cream.

Beckham is proud to buy and sell a Connecticut-made product and to support another small business. Before putting Wildowsky’s ice cream on her menu, she taste-tested the premium, 16 percent-based butterfat product at the Lisbon farm and dairy. Today, Beckham says almost all of Wildowsky’s custom flavors are made for Berry’s.

Salted caramel butter pecan is the favorite and dark chocolate, peanut butter Oreo, and cookie dreams, which combines Oreos, cookie dough and graham crackers, are close runners-ups. In addition to cones and soft serve, they make milkshakes, sundaes and root beer floats at Berry’s. Beckham has a “flavor burst” machine that transforms soft serve to flavors like pistachio nut, cool lemonade and watermelon and also sells frozen yogurt and sorbets. Some of the shop’s creations pay homage to locals, like the Coast Guard Coconut milkshake, which is scoops of coconut ice cream, almonds, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream.

Regular customers are known by name and Beckham and her staff greet everyone with “Welcome to Berry’s Ice Cream and Candy Bar where everything tastes better at Berry’s.”

The shopkeeper acknowledges that her journey to operating an ice cream and candy shop was not a traditional path. Her parents, Doyle and the late Melodie Beckham, likely worried when she dropped out of college and didn’t go back until the age of 29, and in between that worked an odd assortment of jobs, she says.

But all of that knowledge culled at all those different places have strengthened her abilities as a business owner, she says, and should give hope to parents whose children don’t follow a traditional path.

Beckham says she’s found her niche and filled a void in New London.

“An ice cream shop is what New London needed,” she says. “A family-oriented, quality, clean little ice cream business. That’s what was missing in this cute little downtown area.”

Business Snapshot

What: Berry’s Ice Cream & Candy Bar

Where: 90-B Bank St., New London

Who: Owner Laura Beckham and a staff of 14 mostly part-time employees.

Hours: Open at noon seven days a week until 9 p.m. Monday to Wednesday, 10 p.m. on Thursdays, 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and until 8 p.m. on Sundays.