It’s only once a year, but they sure know how to pick the right day.
Warm weather in the high 70s and bright sunshine drew thousands down to Ben and Jerry’s Scoop Shop on South Lake Street for Free Cone Day.
Patrons young and old lined up for a free scoop of “Imagine Whirled Peace” or their famous “Cherry Garcia” ice cream.
Expecting a large crowd to gather, ice cream scoopers Joe Buser, Shann Thomas and Bethany Smith helped set up tables and chairs and surrounded the three parking spaces in front of the store with plastic white picket fencing. After it was all said and done at 8 p.m., Ben and Jerry’s shop owner Jen Greene said they’d served 5,720 cones – a new record for the eight-year old store. That works out to roughly 850 lbs. of ice cream.
In addition to welcoming the community inside for a free ice cream, Greene also placed plastic tubs along the counter for donations to Kirkland Interfaith Transitions in Housing (KITH) and HopeLink. According to Hopelink’s Denise Stephens – who stopped by herself in the afternoon for an ice cream cone – over $1,400 was raised and will be split between the two charities.
“It couldn’t have been a more perfect day,” she said. “It was wonderful.”
The most popular flavor was Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.
Enjoying their ice cream outside, mothers Amy Rice and Linda Leste brought their children downtown for a nice treat. Rice’s two daughters seemed to have trouble keeping up with the melting mint chocolate chip, pressing Amy into action.
“You get to lick the sides,” she said. “That’s one of the perks of being a mom.”
School teachers from Lakeview Elementary School also appeared to have gotten wind of the event and set up several “field trips” to walk the eight or nine blocks down to the shop.
The ice cream chain has held the even annually since opening in 1979.
Some of the other flavors on offer at the store on the corner of Second Avenue and Lake Street South include Coconut Seven Layer Cake, Cake Batter, Chunky Monkey and Orange and Chocolate Macadamia.
The ice cream shop will serve free cones all day until closing at 8 p.m. tonight.
