Success is no rocky road for ice cream business

MATTOON, Ill. -- And now, a hot news scoop from the world of ice cream: A giant cone has landed in Mattoon.

Well, "landed" is waxing a bit lyrical. "Built" is more exact. The 22-foot-tall fiberglass faux dessert -- complete with 16-foot-wide cone -- was assembled by a team that included Ron Rhoads, his dad, Dale, with later assistance from Ron's wife, Laurie, and a whole bunch of others.

The news gets even more tasty inside the Rhoadses' handiwork as the white cone houses an ice-cream shop where the butter pecan is to die for, along with other killer flavors like orange, strawberry, raspberry and blackberry. They keep company with diet-slayers such as dreamsicles -- orange ice-cream twisted with vanilla custard -- and turtle sundaes, a potent blend of custard, hot fudge, hot caramel and pecan.

The business is actually called Rhoadside Custard -- wait until you get a load of their vanilla version -- and there are also popcorn, hot dogs and barbecue sandwiches lurking on the menu.

Wrap all these devilishly delightful food goodies inside a building that's its own best advertisement, and it's hard to see how the Rhoadses can go wrong. "We opened this summer, and business took off right away," said Ron, 42.

"People like our food, and they enjoy looking at our cone."

The Rhoadses know a lot about ice cream and similar delights as their other business interest, Rhoads Refrigeration, has been in the restaurant equipment sales and service line for nearly 40 years.

When they found the defunct giant cone ice-cream shop down in Florida in 1994, they hauled it back up north with the idea of using it as a demonstration venue for their equipment.

"We had it out of back of our house, which is midway between Mattoon and Arcola near I-57," said Ron. "People would see it from the highway and go all the way to Arcola, get off and wander back through the country trying to find it. They'd stand out there and want their picture taken with the cone."

With the world beating a path to their door, the Rhoadses soon began cooking up some retail plans to get their just desserts. Everything fell into place when they found a plum location on South 32nd Street, across from Lytle Park and just down the road from Bennett Elementary School.

Construction work began in March and the cone, which sits on a base building 55 feet long and 14 feet wide, welcomed its first customers June 30.

"People want to know if we live up inside the cone (they don't) and is there any seating up there?" Ron said. "I guess the seating would be a great idea, if we can figure out how to make it work."

Right now, though, they need all the storage space they've got to keep up with consumer demand. The Rhoadses specialize in generous portions -- their big cone weighs 10 ounces and is 10 inches tall -- but even they are surprised at the length of some sweet teeth.

The Rhoadses plan to stay open until the weather outside gets at least as cold as their ice cream, which probably means working through October.