Grandpa’s Soda Fountain and Ice Cream Parlor – Family Friendly Throwback With Tasty Treats

olympia ice cream
Larry Brown owner of the shop, otherwise known as Grandpa, tidies up the ice cream shop by cleaning the soft-serve area counters by hand.
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By Libby Kamrowski

Puget Sound EnergyThe door to Grandpa’s Soda Fountain and Ice Cream Parlor is secretly a time portal.

One minute you’re on Fourth Avenue in 2014 downtown Olympia, and the next you’re blasted to Olympia of the 1950s. Black and white checkered floor. A long counter with scarlet red barstools. Young “soda jerks” working side by side Larry and Drue Brown, otherwise known as Grandpa and Grandma. A family-run business for a family-welcome atmosphere, Grandpa’s Ice Cream is the surest destination to get your kids tasty treats.

olympia ice cream
Larry and Drue Brown, benevolent owners of Grandpa’s Soda Fountain and Ice Cream Shop, work daily to supply sweet treats to the families and patrons of Thurston County.

The idea for the shop was sparked by a chance encounter. “I was painting the building, and a fellow came by Fourth Avenue and stopped in the middle of traffic. ‘Hey – can you tell me if there is a decent ice cream place in this city?’” Larry Brown said. “So it made me think- this would be a great place for that.” The shop took a year to complete, and even longer to generate the flow of customers. But now the shop is close to selling its seventy thousandth ice cream cone in its third year of business.

Few know that in the 1950s, there used to be an ice cream parlor by the name of Kress Ice Cream. A photograph of this historical memory of Olympia can be found inside Grandpa’s, which modeled its own interior as closely as possible to Kress’s. The next time you stop by for a scoop, take a look among the framed historic pictures and you may find it.

The Browns built the shop on the foundation of family. “We wanted to make it family friendly. We wanted it to work for everyone, but especially for when the family comes down and brings their kids downtown in a place to enjoy,” Larry Brown said. The Browns are continually coming up with ways to help out young patrons- they are even expanding the menu board to feature pictures of special ice cream concoctions to meet customer demands.

olympia ice cream
Drue Brown, otherwise known as Grandma, serves me up a scrumptious scoop of Pistachio Cherry Chocolate Chip ice cream in a homemade waffle cone.

But this surely isn’t the only way that the Browns have helped out the youth. In fact, the success of the shop directly benefits the young soda jerks of Grandpa’s. The profits of the store help the young workers pay for college educations. The Browns continually express their amazement with how many young people are working to achieve higher level educations, and receive stacks of resumes.

Soda jerk Belana Anderson, advocate of the cotton candy soft serve and a student of Saint Martin’s University’s class of 2018, says “He opened the shop to hire employees for the purpose to help them make money. For school, or missions. Grandpa and Grandma don’t take any of the profit,” Anderson said. “They are some of the sweetest people, and both very hard working.” Anderson emphasized the generosity of the contributions of the Browns and to their genuinely positive relationships with the staff.

The owners of Grandpa’s Soda Fountain and Ice Cream Parlor are truly as sweet as the treats that they serve.

This summer, customers can expect something new from Grandpa’s in the form of refreshing local fruit. In the near future, fresh flavored lemonades will be available. But the innovation does not stop there. “We’re thinking of a promotion, ‘Until the Cows Come Home.’ It is different kinds of ice cream sodas, which we plan on introducing probably by the first of August,” said soda jerk Michael Kent.

The pre-existing products on the menu are suitable for all tastes. Two dozen flavors of soft serve are advertised on a banner located on the back wall, for the nearly unbeatable price of $1.25 per cone. Hand scooped Olympic Mountain Ice Cream (locally made) is also available, as are sundaes with plentiful toppings to choose from. They’ve thought of everything, as shakes and malts are made from the hand-scooped ice cream and Torani flavors.

For those with creative pallets, Italian sodas are made to order for $2.99, and ice cream sodas for $3.99. Visit the glass case for chocolate confections and penny candy for additional tasty joy. Anywhere you look in the store, you’ll find something else you want to eat.

olympia ice cream
Larry Brown owner of the shop, otherwise known as Grandpa, tidies up the ice cream shop by cleaning the soft-serve area counters by hand.

You may have heard about the waffle cones, or smelled them as you walked past the shop. Grandpa’s Soda Fountain and Ice Cream Shop makes the cones on site, and from personal experience, they are worth the hype. Drue Brown scooped me up a Pistachio Cherry Chocolate Chip in a waffle cone while I was in, and I melted for the cone faster than the ice cream did. If gold were edible, it would taste like the waffle cones that Grandpa’s produces. “People come from all over the area to follow that scent. We sell our ice cream in waffle cones as fast as we can make them,” Larry Brown said.

The next time you’re at Percival Landing or visiting the fountain, be it by yourself or with your family in tow, Grandpa’s Soda Fountain and Ice Cream Parlor will be right around the corner to serve you up a scoop of sugary throwback.

 

olympia ice cream
Take a look into the glass case, featuring penny candies and decadent chocolate confections.

Grandpa’s Soda Fountain and Ice Cream Parlor

208 – 4th Avenue West in Olympia

Summer hours:

Monday through Thursday – 12:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Friday and Saturday – 12:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Sunday – closed

 

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