'You scream, I scream...'

There are few things as indispensable to summer as a good, old-fashioned ice cream cone. It’s cheap, it’s delicious and it’s the perfect complement to a hot day at the beach.

With the opening of two new frozen dessert shops in Whitefish this month, lovers of the cool dairy treat have more options than ever before. But the question arises, in a small community, how can three ice cream shops compete? Are there enough visitors to keep them all open past the tourist season?

Jason Sanders, who opened General Custard at 105 Wisconsin Ave. on June 1, believes so. He says that the more people are exposed to frozen treats, the more they’ll think about them and crave them. And because he is on the opposite side of the viaduct as Mrs. Spoonover’s and Sweet Peaks, he believes his shop will service a different set of customers.

Over on Third Street, Sweet Peaks owners Marissa Keenan and Sam Dauenhauer have a different idea about why each business will survive. They say each shop has a unique niche. It’s the creamy custard and frozen yogurt at Sanders’s shop, the known-name and regular clientele at Mrs. Spoonover’s and the homemade ice cream and experimental flavors at Sweet Peaks.

But even above all that, Dauenhauer says the fact that each shop is local gives them an edge on the market. He says the poor economy has really made patrons aware of where they shop and who they support.

“Everybody just steps back from the chains to support something local,” he said.

The outlook isn’t so positive at Mrs. Spoonover’s, however. The veteran snack shop opened in 1997 and over the years has garnered a loyal following, but owner Judy Scallen said she’s already noticed a huge drop-off in business since her new competitors entered the market.

“It has cut into us a lot,” she said. “I’m very unhappy.”

Scallen said it’s getting harder to own a small business, especially in the winter. Having to compete with two more specialty shops will make it hard for each of them to survive.

Mrs. Spoonover’s has a step up on the other shops because it also serves breakfast and lunch.

“You can’t survive on just ice cream alone,” Scallen said.

Sanders, however, disagrees.

“We’re really, really simple,” he said of his General Custard shop. The executive sous-chef at the Lodge at Whitefish Lake made a conscious decision to stock one cup, one cone, one size and just two flavors — chocolate, vanilla, or a twist of the two — for his custard.

A treat in the Midwest and back East, frozen custard is similar to soft-serve ice cream, but made with a higher milk fat and more egg yolk, making it a creamy and decadent dessert. General Custard is one of the few places to carry it hereabouts.

As for its frozen yogurt, the probiotic-rich blend currently is being offered in huckleberry and cheesecake flavors, also with a twist option.

In his General Custard shop, Sanders has re-created U.S. Army Gen. George Custer’s living room and kitchen. A bison rug draped over a banister greets customers as they walk into the Wild West scene of cap guns, mounted antelope, lace and framed photos of the infamous Cavalry officer.

“Tourists want the Old West,” Sanders says of the reason he chose to play on the Custer image. He says places with a theme and a hook catch more customers.

For Dauenhauer and Keenan of Sweet Peaks, who are engaged to be married, ice cream is a passion, not just a business.

“I’ve always been obsessed with ice cream,” Keenan said. With the endless flavor and texture possibilities, she said it is almost like “its own food group.”

What began with a personal ice cream maker and taste tests with friends has now turned into a fairly large-scale operation where new batches are literally churned out every day. Keenan and Dauenhauer make their ice cream from scratch right there in the back of the Third Street shop. Each batch goes through about a 72-hour process from the mixing of the ingredients to the return to scoopable temperature from the deep freeze its created at.

They’ve had fun experimenting with flavors as well. A recent addition to their collection is a strawberry-rhubarb sorbet made with locally grown rhubarb. They’ve also created a lemon-dill and a red curry-coconut, as well as a ginger flavor and peanut butter-Heath bar ice cream.

“We want to accommodate those with tastebuds on the edge,” Keenan said. Because she grew up in a restaurant environment, she said food has never intimidated her and she’s open to trying pretty much anything. She’s keeping a list of customer requests and is anxious to create a licorice-orange batch and then maybe cotton candy or bacon-chocolate.

But even with all the foodie choices, their most popular flavor, aside from the traditional vanilla and chocolate, has been their birthday cake recipe. Keenan attributes its wide appeal with children to the candy sprinkles mixed in.

At Mrs. Spoonover’s, the local favorites are bubble-gum and Jolly Rancher sorbet.

While the newbies try to establish themselves in the crowded market, Scallen said she and her staff will continue to do what they do best at Mrs. Spoonover’s — focus on the kiddies.

“I’d like to think we treat the children better than anybody else. We treat them like people, not children,” Scallen said. “We try to make the kids more special than the grown-ups.”

Business reporter Erika Hoefer may be reached at 758-4439 or via e-mail at ehoefer@dailyinterlake.com