March 19, 2024

Jersey Freeze opens over weekend in new location

After a short delay, Jersey Freeze in Monroe opened to an eager and excited crowd Friday. Young and old alike stopped by the new location across the street from the previous building to enjoy ice cream, cookies and a new treat — pies.

“Right now we are featuring peach and apple. The pie flavors will be rotated as per customer requests. We have more new items to come as well,” Owner Lynn Donahue said.

The pies, which are also available in the new Pie Jersey Freezer, are from local shop All About Pies, owned by sisters Elaine Keuning and Amy Barton. There are also now seven flavors of Thelma’s Ice Cream sandwiches including signature snickerdoodle, double chocolate chocolate, peanut butter banana and cayenne chocolate chip. The treats were created by former resident Dereck Lewis in honor of his great-grandma and also are available at his shop in Des Moines.

Jersey Freeze originally opened in 1992 in the building currently occupied by All About Pies on Highway 14 north of the downtown square. In 2000, it moved to its previous location and a bigger building, also located on Highway 14 south of Malone Motorsports. The newest location moved across the street in between Subway and Casey’s.

“The new location is bigger. More parking, more serving area, bigger patio and more storage,” Donahue said.

The new building also has a drive-up window for customer convenience Donahue said. The ice cream shop was originally scheduled to open in late March, but because a variety of delays the date was pushed into April.

A few test runs were served to several prom goers from Pella and a group of Pella Christian soccer players heading home from playing in Monroe. A soft opening was also held Thursday evening.

Another new addition, sort of, is manager Shannon Sims. New to the position, Sims has worked at Jersey Freeze for more than 10 years.

“Opening weekend went great, the support from the community was phenomenal. The girls acclimated well to the new store and I don’t think Lynn or I could be happier,” Sims said.

Jersey Freeze is open from noon until 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. More information on the newest happenings at Jersey Freeze are also available in its Facebook page.