Fruitland ice cream shop scoops up tasty treats
Double Scoop to open for warm weather in late March
By Brielle Kennington
Argus Observer
Wednesday, March 5, 2008 10:51 AM PST
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| Double Scoop, situated on South Kansas Avenue in Fruitland, offers ice cream connoisseurs 10 flavors of hard ice cream along with many other tasty treats. Owner Dave Clements plans to open his seasonal shop back up to customers later this month. |
Fruitland — Dave Clements has always wanted to own his own business.
That is why Clements purchased Double Scoop ice cream shop in Fruitland two years ago when he saw the for sale sign in the window.
“It’s a true dipping shop,” Clements said.
His true dipping shop offers 10 different homemade flavors of ice cream and two Italian ice flavors. Clements makes the hard ice cream once a week in 1 gallon tubs at a time. His soft-served machine also makes up the soft-served ice cream on a regular basis.
Along with a variety of flavors, Double Scoop offers something different than other ice cream shops — an attachment for his soft-served ice cream machine. With the attachment, Clements can add blasts of different flavors to vanilla ice cream. Clements said he’s noticed the flavor blast is a favorite for children. Adults also have their favorite flavors as well, and if Clements gets enough requests for a certain flavor he will make it available.
He said the best part of owning Double Scoop is making his customers happy and choosing what flavors to make.
“The most rewarding part is making my own ice cream and making things that other people enjoy. People come here because they want to,” he said.
Though the business has its rewards, it also has its downsides.
Because of the chilly weather winter, Double Scoop is only open seasonally.
Clements said he tried to stay open during the winter months, but business was slow and it wasn’t practical for Double Scoop to remain open.
Ice cream fanatics will be happy to know Clements is planning on reopening for spring later this month. Double Scoop’s operating hours will be Monday through Saturday 11 a.m. through 9 p.m.
Clements said, when he opens every year, business gradually climbs along with the climbing temperatures. Double Scoop will then remain open until early November when the weather starts to turn cold again.
While the temperatures are high and residents sport their flip flops and sun screen, Double Scoop offers a variety of different tasty treats. In addition to ice cream, some of the other goodies include soft pretzels, cookies, Italian sodas, espressos, smoothies and Polish hot dogs. Double Scoop also has a candy rack with many different kinds of sweets.
“People just come in for the good stuff,” Clements said with a smile.
Before serving up the good stuff at Double Scoop, Clements worked as a manager of a sporting goods store in Boise.
He moved to the area 10 years ago because of family ties. His brother resides in Boise, and his parents retired to Weiser. Clements has now been married for four years and is the proud father of three children. Though he has been happy living in the small town of Fruitland, Clements is originally from Northern California.
Clements’ goals for his ice cream shop include bringing in more residents from surrounding cities and participating in more community events.
In past years Double Scoops has worked with the Fruitland Middle School reward program. The reward program is an incentive for students to work hard to get good grades. Students who received a high GPA were rewarded with free ice cream from Double Scoop. Clements hopes to attend Global Village this year along with the A&W Cruise Night, which is the largest car show in the area.
Along with using his ice cream cart for community events, Clements said he is open to the idea of renting it out for private parties and other events.
Though Clements doesn’t see his last goal happening any time soon, he said one day he would like to add a drive-thru onto his building.
