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Krispy Kreme adding ice cream to Fairview store
BY WILL BUSS
News-Democrat
Krispy Kreme will no longer be a place for just doughnuts.
The company is adding ice cream to its menus, including the shop at 5812 N. Illinois St. in Fairview Heights.
St. Louis-based Hotlight Brands temporarily closed the metro-east store's doors Sunday to retool the restaurant with an ice cream counter and equipment to make and serve the company's Kool Kreme ice cream treats. The store is expected to reopen at 6 a.m. Saturday.
The business will serve all sorts of soft-serve ice cream treats, from cones, sundaes, banana splits, ice cream floats and concretes.
Hotlight Brands President Laura Schlegel said the idea came from another franchise that opened the first Kool Kreme ice cream shop in December inside its Krispy Kreme store in Tacoma, Wash. Schlegel said what the owners did in Tacoma intrigued the new owners in the St. Louis market.
"They've done well with it, and we asked if we could be the first to make the conversion here," Schlegel said.
The local franchise has already converted stores across the river in O'Fallon, Mo.; Fenton, Mo. and South St. Louis County. Others Hotlight locations that have followed include 12 in the Chicago area and two more in central Illinois. Schlegel said customers are buying into the ice cream.
"It's been very good," she said. "We're very happy with sales."
A few miles north of the Krispy Kreme store, Bobby Kozyak has been selling frozen custard from his Maryville stand for the past 19 years and also sells caramel apples. He said he isn't concerned about any competition, and he doesn't see how selling doughnuts and ice cream will help Krispy Kreme.
"I don't see how those two go together," Kozyak said. "They don't compliment each other, doughnuts and ice cream. I just try to visualize myself trying to sell doughnuts, and I think that would be odd. They evidently have done research and think it will work. Then more power to them. But to me, it looks like it wouldn't work."
In Belleville, Julie Chadwick opened West End Creamery a month ago at 8205 W. Main St. after having operated a branch of The White Cottage there. She doesn't see how Kool Kreme soft-serve ice cream would compete with her business.
"I don't imagine we would share a lot in common market because of physical distance between us, I guess," Chadwick said. "If they do the old-fashioned, hard ice cream, like we do, it would probably have an impact on us. If they're only serving soft-serve, I don't think it will impact our shop."
Schlegel said the new product line will add another dimension to the franchise's stores.
"We believe Kool Kreme will add to our seasonability with ice cream in the summertime," she said.
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It's warm and sunny.
I'm hungry.
And in the mood for ice cream.
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