LAKEWOOD RANCH — Anyone who happened to be on Lakewood Ranch Main Street about 4 p.m. Thursday could walk right up and get a free sample of ice cream with a puff of whipped cream on top, scooped and served by Dennis Yoder, founder of Big Olaf Creamery Siesta Key.
It was his way of saying the lease has been signed to bring Big Olaf Creamery and Yoder’s Amish Shoppe to the spot vacated by Bruster’s Ice Cream last December.
Mason Kolbe, 8, walked away with a saucer of ice cream and a problem. He had a baseball glove on one hand. Unable to grasp a spoon, his vanilla confection was rapidly turning into a puddle in the Florida heat.
For that very reason, Big Olaf won’t open to the public until probably August, said Yoder. The store will be renovated so that customers can come inside and sit down to eat their treats in a cooler environment.
In 1982 Nancy and Dennis Yoder bought the rights to produce the first waffle cones in the state of Florida, and later introduced the treat to SeaWorld and Busch Gardens.
“My whole life, I have always had a love of ice cream, maybe too much,” Dennis Yoder said Thursday.
In addition to ice cream, the store will sell Amish-made bread, rolls, cakes, cookies, pies, jams and jellies, meat, cheese and more.
Kirk Rudolph from MacAllister’s Restaurant dropped by to get a large waffle cone filled with several scoops of ice cream.
“It was excellent, it tasted home-made,” Rudolph said.
Dan Barion of Arts A Blaze Studio, a business that allows customers to make their own ceramics, also stopped by.
“Now we have something else on Main Street for kids to do,” Barion said. “During the day, we cater to the kids, and later to the older folks,” Barion said.
Almost on cue, Tasha French stopped by with her two children, Matthew and Brooklyn, after coming from Lakewood Ranch Cinemas where they had watched the movie, “Up.”
The children left with samples of vanilla and chocolate ice cream.
James A. Jones Jr., East Manatee editor, can be contacted at 708-7916.
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