POQUOSON, Va. (WAVY) — It’s the talk of the town in Poquoson; a new ice cream shop has opened.
Owner of Bean’s Ice Cream, Jenna Horning, doesn’t believe there is any other place in Hampton Roads currently serving frozen treats like this.
“We’ve just not experienced an ice cream shop that we’ve been able to go to,” Horning said. “So yeah, we did it.”
Horning’s 11-year-old daughter has a severe peanut allergy and she said most hand dipped ice cream businesses places she has been to don’t have enough precautions in place to avoid cross contamination.
“They assume that if [they] don’t have peanut toppings or they are not using the peanut toppings, then you should be fine. But that is not the case. A child with a severe peanut allergy can break out … and even die,” Horning said.
So Horning long set out to open up a place that would cater to those with severe allergies.
“I actually developed the business plan back in 2015,” Horning said. “It recently all fell into place.”
The shop at 475 Wythe Creek Road used to be the home of Boulevard Cleaners. Bean’s Ice Cream opened up for the first time on the 4th of July.
“We have two freezers, one has [ice cream] with absolutely no nuts in it. We have two dip wells, and we have two separate milkshake makers,” Horning said. On the first day, a young boy came in with his mother that had egg, tree-nut and peanut allergies.
“He felt very confident, his mom felt very confident and I was able to hand him a chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and he was just ecstatic,” Horning said. “It was pretty emotional, I’m not going to lie.”
Horning hopes it brings better awareness to the issue that servers and restaurant owners need to be more conscious about conditions.
