Hyattsville’s Franklins Debuts New Ice Cream Shop with 30 Flavors
Franklins officially opened its long-awaited homemade ice cream shop in Hyattsville on October 7 after a brief sneak peek gave residents a taste of what’s to come.
Located at 5123 Baltimore Ave. in the back of the general store area, the ice cream shop already has an extensive menu, including 30 flavors such as cheesecake swirl, Oreo crumble and strawberry swirl stracciatella.
One offering even mimics the Painkiller, the house drink of Franklins outdoor tiki bar, with a mix of rum, pineapple and coconut.
There are also 11 non-dairy options, including four kinds of sorbet and seven vegan ice creams made using a base from the Italian company Fructital, which doesn’t have the aftertaste of some other vegan options.
Owner Mike Franklin told the Hyattsville Wire that he believes they are the only U.S. shop using this company’s vegan base, which is made with coconut fat and soy.
Franklin said he took pains to find high-quality ingredients for the ice cream, such as using Amarena cherries, premium 100 percent pistachio butter, and homemade waffle cones, as well as toffee crunch made on site. The menu also includes two house-made brownies, one of which is gluten-free.
He plans to roll out the ice cream shop menu in stages, and next Tuesday, they’ll start offering sundaes as well.
You can also get a grab-and-go pint of ice cream for sale at the ice cream shop for $11.99 each.
The shop is open daily, with the back-door entrance along the Rhode Island Trolley Trail always accessible during operating hours, which are Sunday through Wednesday from 12pm to 9pm, and Thursday through Saturday from 12pm to 10pm.
I stopped by yesterday. The ice cream is delicious, but the prices are absurd. To make matters worse, when the cashier presented me with the payment tablet with the too-familiar tip screen, she said, “We just need a signature” – but when I went to sign, the device locked me into a default 20% tip, which is not what I intended. More than $8, all told, for a small scoop of ice cream is too much, and the shady business practices left a bad taste in my mouth. Customers deserve better than to have their bills tip-flated against their will.
Thanks for letting us know. I certainly won’t be getting ice cream from them.
These prices are well in line with other area ice creams, ie Coldstone and Ice Cream Jubilee, and I’m happy to give the money to a local establishment like Franklins, which has been a stalwart of Route One for so many years.