Striking just the right balance of timing, product and location, Stalin Bedon of Washington Avenue, Hopewell, opened Stally Wally’s Ice Cream Factory at 1 Railroad Place on Aug. 3
By: Catherine P. Moscarello
Striking just the right balance of timing, product and location, Stalin Bedon of Washington Avenue, Hopewell, opened Stally Wally’s Ice Cream Factory at 1 Railroad Place on Aug. 3.
Mother Nature cooperated by sending an August heat wave that coaxed borough residents out of their homes in the evening, seeking some cool confections. By mid-week, word-of-mouth advertising had overflow customers spilling out onto the curb and into the borough mini-park across the street from the little store located near the intersection of North Greenwood Avenue and Railroad Place.
Mr. Bedon, who prefers to be called "just Stalin," commented that in the weeks prior to his store’s opening, only one or two people visited the park. "During our first weekend, the number of people in the park just went over the top! I was so happy to feel so welcomed by borough residents."
Destiny directed Mr. Bedon to open a business for which he had the name for 10 years before he even thought about an ice cream store. "A friend was joking with me after we had a disagreement and she said ‘Stally Wally’ would be a perfect name for me if I ever went into business."
A 10-year commitment that began when he was a teenager working at Thomas Sweet’s Ice Cream store in Princeton gave Mr. Bedon the idea for his future enterprise. But when he stopped working for Thomas Grim, his former employer who had become his close friend, there was no alignment of the right time, location or money. Mr. Bedon continued on a career path that led him to manage Jazam’s toy stores in Princeton, Pennington and Montgomery but still kept alive the dream of owning his own business.
"I was visiting Chubby, who owns Chubby’s Diner. She is the ‘honorary aunt’ of my boss at Jazam’s, Joann Farrugia, and she told me the space she rented out for a baseball card store was available. It’s only 150 square feet, but my wife is an architect and we started thinking what we could do with that space. I know three things: books, toys and ice cream. A bookstore takes a lot of space and I already was working with toys, so the gears started turning. I asked my friend, Tom Grim, what he thought about the idea and I was so encouraged by his response ‘You’ve had worse ideas!’ that I decided to go ahead and open the store."
Putting in late hours after his day job, Mr. Bedon built counter space, added a fresh coat of paint in vibrant, candy-store shades. "Tom had some used ice cream equipment that, originally, I was going to put on the Internet for auction for him. He donated it to me and everything else just came together."
The Thomas Sweet ice cream that Stally Wally’s serves is all hand-dipped and comes in a variety of 50 flavors, 17 of which are available at the store at any given time. With the help of two young daytime managers Nicholas Grim and his cousin, Michael Abernathy, both of whom "have been scooping ice cream since the day they were born" Stally Wally has a summer schedule that runs from noon until 10 p.m. In October, the store will be open on weekends only and eventually will close when cold weather hits.
"Of course, that’s when the toy business kicks into high gear, so that’s perfect for me," the owner said.
Then borough area residents can look forward to one more sign of spring the reopening of the store in mid-March.