A new ice cream joint is coming to the north end of Orillia next month.
Orillia real estate Stewart McNeely is opening The Cone beside his self-serve car wash, UltraWash, at 461 Laclie St.
“Last fall I had the unit up for lease, and I got thinking, I got to do something myself here,” McNeely said,
The Orillia born and raised McNeely, his wife Barb, and his daughter Ellery, came up with the idea to open a strictly take-out ice cream shop.
“We have two take-out windows, it’s COVID friendly, and it will stand the test of time if we have other pandemics to deal with. That was sort of the reasoning as to why we are doing it,” he explained.
“Good economy or bad economy, COVID or no COVID, everybody gets warm and fuzzy about ice cream,” McNeely quipped.
After much consideration, research and local polling, McNeely decided on Kawartha Dairy as The Cone’s supplier.
McNeely says the concept for his new venture will be simple - fast, and friendly, which was inspired by one of Orillia’s most popular restaurants.
“All of my kids have worked at Webers and they have a very simple menu, that’s what we are doing here,” he said.
“We are going to have one, two, and three scoops, milkshakes, canned pop, and bottled water…That’s it.”
McNeely says the mission for The Cone is to deliver fast and friendly service with a great product that will put a smile on the customer's face.
The Cone will accept car wash tokens as a method of payment, they will have featured flavours of the week, and staff will engage with customers while they are in line.
“It’s going to be a little more relationship-based than transactional,” McNeely said.
The seasonal business has a target soft opening date of April 8, and it will employ 12-15 local people, he said.
