Ice Cream and Krispy Kreme
Posted in Random Thoughts on September 26th 2004 by Randy Reichardt:: Some months ago, a story appeared in The Edmonton Journal, stating that a Krispy Kreme store would be opening in Edmonton later this summer. Summer is over, and in the location in South Edmonton Common where the Krispy Kreme store was to be built, or so we were led to believe, yet another Tim Hortons store is under construction. When complete, I think it will bring the number of Tim Hortons doughnut shops in Edmonton to 1,233. Certainly there are more important things in life, yes, and I know I don’t need to eat more doughnuts, but having tasted Krispy Kreme products in NYC and Spokane, well, they blow Tim H out of the water. Just my opinion. And Calgary has the only store in Alberta.
A few weeks ago while at SEC, I noticed a number of cars parked around a small storefront with the name, Marble Slab Creamery. Intrigued, I drove across the parking lot to discover an amazing ice cream shop. I ordered a waffle cone with strawberry ice cream, mixed in with real strawberries. When you buy ice cream, it is put on a frozen marble slab, and you can choose from a number of “mixins” to be added to your flavour. The ice cream is made in the store, as are the cones. The business began in Houston TX in October 1983. There are two stores in Edmonton, one in Calgary. What’s intriguing to me is that South Edmonton Common is not an area designed for walking traffic, being nowhere near any homes or apartments. When complete, it will have 2.3 million square feet of gross leasable area on buildout. To get to Marble Slab at SEC, you need transportation. Yet the two times I’ve been there, it’s been busy. So the word must be spreading about this place. I wonder how it will do when winter arrives?
It’s getting harder to deal with my sweet tooth. Marble Slab doesn’t serve my favorite ice cream, butterscoth, but you can choose vanilla and have the staff mix in ingredients to create different flavours. Tonight I had a strawberry milkshake – loved it, and probably absorbed way too many carbs. But life is short.
