My wife Kathy and I love ice cream. We may qualify as addicts. Since we first met in 1978, we have searched all over for new ice cream flavors and experiences.
Several years ago, a local ice cream / burger place closed. It was known for the helicopter that sat outside. Last year we saw it was reopening soon. They reopened a nicely spruced up store late in 2022. We were able to visit them before they closed for the season. We even had a nice conversation with the new lady owner. I got the last serving of their pistachio ice cream for the season. It was absolutely the best I ever had. It had whole pistachios in it along with a rich creamy vibrant flavor. We do not get over that way often, but when we do, we usually try to stop in for a "taste."
June 22nd, we celebrated our 43rd anniversary at a nearby restaurant. That clearly makes us "seasoned citizens." We took our dessert to go so we could stop for a couple of scoops. I ordered a small pistachio and Kathy ordered a vanilla fudge. My wife sat at an outside table texting with our daughters. I remained at the counter after paying $11.12 for the two small cups. I remember it clearly as I rarely have exact change. They say small, but they are decent sized scoops as you would expect at a higher end place.
Kathy's ice cream arrived first so I set it on the table next to her. My wife having better manners than me kept texting and waited until I arrived with mine and we started in together.
One bite in Kathy says to me this is icy, not creamy like all the others. I suggested she try a second taste to be sure it was not an isolated bit of ice that may have built up on the side of the ice cream container. It was still icy, so I took a small taste and confirmed it was indeed icy. These were not big spoonful's as we like to enjoy our ice cream without a brain freeze. She says she doesn't want to eat this, what should we do. We decided to ask them to exchange it for another flavor that was not icy. Seemed reasonable to us they would want to make it right.
I stayed in my seat, with my back to the counter when she went up. No reason for me to stop working on my pistachio delight! The young lady that served us said they do not offer refunds on ice cream. My wife said she did not want a refund she just wanted to change it. The best they could do was a small soft serve instead.
I then got up and took my bowl of pistachio with me. I tapped my bowl with my spoon and said this is amazing stuff. The bowl my wife got, not so much, it is icy. I asked them to exchange flavors for my wife. Again, the young lady said she could not do that, they would only offer a small soft serve in its place. My wife sees the lady owner behind the other counter and says to her, its your business, what do you say? Her response was that the young lady at the window was correct, they do not refund ice cream and a small soft serve was their only counter.
I asked her to check the ice cream in the freezer for herself and see if it was icy. She categorically refused saying the ice cream was scooped from the center and was just fine and that she saw my wife eating it. Three partial spoons were all that left that cup. Now the cup did sit a minute or two on the table while waiting for me. It is possible she thought more was consumed then actually was.
They closed the window on us and that was that as far as they were concerned. We decided not to stay. I swapped cups with Kathy. She took the balance of the pistachio to the car. I was going to toss the icy stuff. I felt bad for the young lady at the window, like she was trapped between the owner and us. So, I stopped at the window as I was leaving, put the cup of icy ice cream on the counter, and told her no worries, it was not her fault the product was icy. She did nothing wrong.
That set the lady owner off like I never expected. She screamed at me to get the "F**K off" her property (or something similar as after the word "off" it was garbled with the window closed). That was screamed over her own staff which was mostly young ladies. That over-the-top reaction (a.k.a. "a hostile work environment") caused me to pause for a moment. This is a place of business and this reaction over a small cup of ice cream was way out of proportion. I reminded her she did not even attempt to check if her ice cream was OK then went directly to cursing me off the grounds? She then turned to her husband who had been washing dishes in the back corner and yelled at him words to the effect are you going to take care of this? I never did see the husband on the way to my car. I am pretty sure he heard the entire conversation and wanted no part of it.
Every ice cream we had there over the months was great with the one exception on the night of our anniversary. If you decide to go there you will likely get a nice dish of ice cream. However, should there be any problem with what you are served do you really want your children to see you humiliated the way we were?
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