Keegan Donahue, 2, beats the summer heat with an ice cream cone. Local ice cream businesses are offering more on their menus to appeal to a customer base that is growing more demanding. This summer, Jersey Freeze — one of New Jersey’s most iconic ice cream stands — did something it has never done before: serve hard ice cream.
This is no small change for the Freehold business, considering that Jersey Freeze has been known for creamy soft-serve since its 1952 opening, with customers going nuts over flavors like strawberry and banana, in addition to the traditional vanilla and chocolate. The addition of hard ice cream on Jersey Freeze’s menu is one of many strategies that local ice cream shops have applied to stay afloat. With competition from frozen-yogurt stores, ice cream chains and the supermarket freezer aisle, local ice cream businesses in New Jersey are forced more than ever to appeal to a customer base that is growing more and more demanding.
And for Jersey Freeze, it’s working.
“This year, we’re doing so much better because of the hard ice cream,” said Katie Dinonno, general manager of Jersey Freeze. “A lot of people aren’t soft ice cream fans, so if you didn’t like soft ice cream, you wouldn’t come here. But now I feel like people that like soft and hard can come together and come here. It’s your one-stop shop.”
Though Jersey Freeze doesn’t make the hard ice cream in house due to space constraints — it sells Gifford’s World Class Ice Cream from Maine — it has already accounted for 40 to 45 percent of the shop’s sales.
“It’s the best hard ice cream you’ll ever have,” Dinonno said.
Some businesses, like Magnifico’s in East Brunswick, have chosen to get by without hard ice cream. Along with his daughter, Nicole, owner Gary Magnifico said he has run his business essentially the same way since opening in 1981, offering a rotation of soft flavors such as salted caramel, pistachio and Brazilian coffee.
“The only thing I’m doing is improving on improvement,” Gary said.
One such improvement is a vestibule added to the store five years ago to protect customers from rain and wind as they stand in line. The vestibule improved sales by 25 percent on days with bad weather.
Magnifico’s also stands out due to its homemade novelties, such as the ice cream-filled cannoli, chipwich sliders and hot waffles.
“See if you can go get a delicious, boardwalk-style hot waffle anywhere in any ice cream store … and I’m not talking about a waffle that’s not good. I’m talking about something that’s unbelievable,” Gary said.
Another element that’s helped Magnifico’s in recent years is social media, with Nicole luring customers to the store through appetizing photos posted on Facebook and Instagram.
“It definitely has helped,” Nicole said.
Some businesses, like What’s the Scoop in Metuchen, have emphasized hot food in addition to serving more than 100 recipes of hard and soft ice cream. Five years ago, owner Mike Patterson introduced pizza to his ice cream store — a major challenge, considering that Metuchen already had several respected pizza restaurants.
“[Our pizza] had to gain the trust of the locals that we actually make a very good pie,” Patterson said.
The pizza has been well-received, with its thin crust differentiating it from some other pizzas in town. What’s the Scoop also serves subs and hot dogs.
“We don’t want to be everything to everybody, but at the same time, we want to have options for folks who want pizza and a hot lunch,” Patterson said. “And who doesn’t love pizza and ice cream?”
This year has also seen some notable openings and closings of ice cream shops.
Mike Reutter, the owner of Jake’s Cree- Mee Freeze, lost the lease to his Millstone location last winter, making this the first summer that the ice cream business operated only in Manalapan.
Fortunately, the loss of a location hasn’t stopped devoted customers from coming back.
“We have a loyal following,” Reutter said. “And we really tested that out this year [with the loss of the Millstone location], just how loyal our customers are. It’s been a blessing.”
Hoffman’s Ice Cream & Yogurt — a staple of Point Pleasant Beach — opened up a new location this year in Long Branch. Four Boys Ice Cream, which opened in Englishtown in 2005, added locations in Jamesburg last year and Belmar this year.
JoAnn Becker, who runs Four Boys with her family, said local ice cream shops survive because they offer “the personal touch.”
“It’s your reputation,” Becker said. “This is your baby. … Every decision we make has to be for the business, and that’s why we’re successful, and Jersey Freeze is successful, and Jake’s Cree-Mee Freeze is successful.
“And I never want to get so big that you lose that personal touch — that’s the thing.”