Our family, like many others in the Freehold area, is trying to come to grips with the news that the Jersey Freeze ice cream stand and restaurant at Route 9 and Manalapan Avenue in Freehold will likely be gone by the end of 2008.
The story of the imminent closing of Jersey Freeze has been well chronicled in these pages over the past few months by staff writer Clare Marie Celano.
Celano has reported that plans are in the works to build an Olive Garden restaurant at the Jersey Freeze site. The Freehold Borough Zoning Board of Adjustment recently voted to let that project move forward.
Jersey Freeze has been a landmark in Freehold since the early 1950s. The ice cream stand started out as a seasonal business, founded by the father of Bruce Blackmore, the present owner. It later became a year-round operation.
Blackmore has owned Jersey Freeze since 1980 and says it has been a sevenday a-week enterprise for him. I believe him. He is the owner, the restaurant has been in his family for 50-plus years and you can tell just by visiting that a great deal of pride goes into the operation of the business.
Blackmore says he wants to retire. He has explained in news stories why he believes financial realities would not make it feasible for anyone else to take over the operation of Jersey Freeze at its present location.
I have been going to Jersey Freeze for years – not as long as some people around here – and I will miss the landmark. There is nothing quite like sitting on the Jersey Freeze patio on a summer night, enjoying the ice cream and watching others do the same.
I am guessing that a lot of people have been trying to think up ways to save Jersey Freeze and keep it right where it has always been. That group would include my 12-year-old son, Nate, who really enjoys the crinkle cut french fries and the chocolate and vanilla swirl ice cream cones.
Nate’s idea is simple: He says Bruce Springsteen should buy Jersey Freeze and keep it where it is. Now, you can try to logically explain the realities of retirement and real estate to a 12-year-old, but it won’t get you very far.
I have tried taking this tack. It does not work. The kid wants Jersey Freeze to stay where it is and he wants the Freehold-born rocker to buy it.
Go on, admit it. You’ve thought about that Springsteen idea, too. I’ll give you this – it would present quite a picture of the owner-operator flipping burgers and serving ice cream cones.
I have the same feelings of nostalgia for the Carvel ice cream store that used to be on Route 9 north near Gordons Corner Road in Manalapan.
The Carvel was owned and operated by the Reigert family of Manalapan for years and, as I recall it, was the only ice cream store around when my family moved to Manalapan in 1971.
I can fondly recall my dad coming home from work, having dinner and then taking my sister and me to Carvel. I was always partial to a chocolate Flying Saucer or to a chocolate Lollapalooza. Just thinking about those two treats makes me hungry.
In any event, the Reigerts eventually closed the ice cream store, and now it is just a pleasant memory, like many other familiar places that once served this area’s families and visitors.
Jersey Freeze appears ready to move from local landmark to the storehouse of my mind in the not-too-distant future.
Unless the Boss is looking for a second career.
Mark Rosman is the managing editor of the News Transcript. Readers may reach him at [email protected].