Ice cream shops monitor rising temperatures by cup and cone

If you love ice cream, you're in the right place.

In the summertime, when school and the sun are out, you can go almost any direction around Southeast Missouri and find a trove of it to fit your personal taste.

And the hotter the weather gets, the more it's in demand.

One of the places people go is Port Cape Girardeau Restaurant & Lounge at 19 N. Water St., which has had its Old Town Ice Cream Co. scooping dips inside since 2004.

"When good weather breaks and the sun is shining, people come downtown to see the Mississippi River," said owner Doc Cain. "What's better than walking the riverfront with an ice cream cone?"

The shop has 16 flavors, with vanilla and chocolate being the favorites, but with mint chocolate chip, strawberry cheesecake and other relatively new flavors having won lots of aficionados.

Cain said his ice cream sales are 10 percent to 15 percent of his total revenue, and many river-strolling customers use the walk-up window.

Fourteen miles southwest of there in Scott County, Chaffee Drive-in owner Laura Estes says walking the town with an ice cream cone or cup in hand is part of the culture.

Carson Franklin, left, Andrew Franklin, Betsy Franklin and Cecil Franklin enjoy some ice cream together Friday, June 6, 2014 at American Ice Cream in Jackson. (Fred Lynch)

The former Dairy Queen uses soft vanilla for its banana splits, fudge nut parfait sundaes, milkshakes, cones, storms or blizzards and other dishes.

"Ours is a real walking-friendly town," Estes said at the 200 S. Main St. restaurant. "We have two busy streets in Chaffee, but it's more mellow on the side streets. When the weather is nice, our nighttime business is way bigger than daytime."

American Ice Cream & More manager Sarah Thompson at 221 S. Hope St. in Jackson said most of her sales, peaking at 150 to 175 cups a day, are concretes, or what were called Blizzards when the shop was a Dairy Queen from 1957 to 2007.

"We have 50 or 60 flavors, from cookie dough to cheesecake, Oreo, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, M&Ms and Snickers," Thompson said.

"The warmer it gets, the better."

Other local and area shops include Kaleidoscoops Supreme Hand Dipped Ice Cream at 1741 N. Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau, the Ice Cream Corner at 2302 Main St. in Scott City and Get the Scoop at 110 A Perry Plaza in Perryville, Missouri.

Andy's Frozen Custard owner Bill Leming at 809 N. Kingshighway said his traffic picks up between Memorial Day in late May and Labor Day in early September, when vanilla and chocolate cups, cones, sundaes and concretes, or flavored custard, are in heavy demand.

Explaining that custard is like ice cream but with less air and water, Leming said, "You don't have to develop a taste for it. You just have to taste it."