Ice cream cones have been flying out of the sliding windows of a familiar spot in Haliburton village over the past week.
Brandon and Megan Nimigon have breathed new life into the former CoolLicks property, relaunching as the Scoop Shack on June 9. Brandon said he and his wife had been working on the idea since early winter.
“This is such an iconic place with a lot of history. I think Haliburton deserves a cute little cottage ice cream shop,” Brandon said. “We’ve had people coming into the [Century 21] office and randomly asking ‘where is the ice cream in Haliburton’ but for the past couple of years we really haven’t had anywhere, which seems silly for our town.
“We have a great downtown, beautiful park. Now there’s a place for people to get ice cream again,” he added, noting the establishment is starting out with 18 flavours from Kawartha Dairy.
The space will be open six days a week through summer, Tuesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Brandon said hours may be extended once summer fully kicks off. The Nimigons have hired four people to run the store.
Being a longtime customer of previous ice cream operations in the downtown, Brandon said it was a cool full-circle moment opening Scoop Shack. Megan said the couple almost bought the building when it went up for sale a couple of years ago, but interest truly set in after they purchased the Bernstein’s property in February.
“The kid inside me is so excited,” Brandon said. Megan added their own children, Ellie and Bennett, are a close second and third.
“Ellie said to us after one of our first nights, ‘I never thought my parents would own an ice cream store’. She’s so desperate to work there. She’s been waiting and waiting to tell all of her friends that we’re open,” Megan said.
They’ve leased the space for now and are locked in for the summer season – anything beyond that will be determined by how well the business does, Brandon said.
“I think this is something Haliburton needs, but we’ll see. It’ll just be Kawartha Dairy ice cream cones for now, but I can see us expanding to milkshakes and soft-serve ice cream if things go well,” Brandon said.
Asked how renovations were going next door, Brandon said he just secured building permits from the township paving the way for interior restoration at Bernstein’s. The plan remains to turn the space into three storefronts – a new office for Century 21 and two fresh businesses.
“We’re hopefully a couple months away from seeing something happen there. Work is really ramping up now and we’re hoping to have someone in there later this summer,” Brandon said.
