In late October, a Cold Stone Creamery location opened on Elmira Road in Ithaca in conjunction with the Tim Hortons Cake & Bake Shop.
According to Lindsay Meehan, director of marketing and communications at Mirabito Holdings, owner of the Ithaca Tim Hortons and Cold Stone franchises, the company decided to open the new Cold Stone location “due to traffic counts and the size and nature of the local community, which includes two major colleges.”
Coldstone has standard products that it will offer in Ithaca, the same products that are offered at locations elsewhere, Meehan said.
There are currently 1,400 Cold Stone Creamery locations in the United States and Canada, according to the store’s website. The store derives its name from a frozen granite stone where an assortment of ingredients and an ice cream flavor of one’s choosing are mixed together.
The new Cold Stone location is joining a local ice cream market that includes Purity, the local ice cream parlor that has been in Ithaca since 1936, and Sweet Melissa’s, another local ice cream parlor, along with several others.
Meehan said that “we do not intend to … take any business from Purity … [we] just [want to] offer more variety and a quality product to Ithaca residents and students.” Cold Stone also has a drive-thru option whereby customers can order and pick up ice cream without leaving their cars.
Original Author: Rebekah Foster