Brookfield Ice Cream Shop Thrives Amid Heat Wave With Quality Scoops

BROOKFIELD, CT — The air outside is sweltering as Brookfield descends into yet another heat wave. No one in town is happy about that, except perhaps Beck Selmani.

The Southbury resident and his family own and operate Sweet Scoops, the ice cream shop that moved into the 7 Station Road location formerly and famously occupied by a Rich Farm franchise.

"It helps," Selmani said of the stream of scorchers, but string after string of 90-degree days is by no means the only key to his shop's success.

The secret is to serve up exclusively "very good quality stuff," and high freezer-to-counter maintenance. Although the shop offers 43 flavors of ice cream, including multiple vegan options, and they're all produced daily in small batches.

"If you go in my freezer, you're not gonna find more than two buckets of a certain flavor. It's all in the logistics of moving everything out quick so it's not too long in the freezer."

Of course, the vanilla, chocolate and cookie dough "are always going to move," Selmani said, but he keeps his eye on the shop's experimentals and exclusives, like Biscoff cookie butter and "banilla caramel" — bananas with Nilla crackers and caramel.

His breakout flavor star is lavender. The taste sensation began its run as a temporary "special," but has earned a permanent berth in the front-of-shop dipping cabinet.

"It shocked me," Selmani said. "Young kids, middle-aged, old people, they love the lavender."

Selmani, who with his father previously owned San Remo Restaurant & Pizzeria and Al’s Best Pizza in Woodbury, said he had been scouting to find the right location for an ice cream shop for a year. When the 1,700-square-foot shop and former Rich Farm site became available last year, he jumped at the opportunity. Sweet Scoops opened at the end of June.

The living may be easy in summertime for scoop shops, but what's it like when there's frost on the pumpkin? For Selmani, who opened his shop in June, it's too early to tell.

"Some (ice cream shop owners) say they still do good in the wintertime. Some people say, 'Oh, I'm going to close for two months.' So I don't know yet. We'll have to wait and see."

As much as he can, Selmani says he won't leave Sweet Scoops' fate to chance after the leaves have fallen. His plan is to start selling baked goods and "warmer products" once the mercury starts to drop.

And for those johnny-come-lately scoop-jockeys who enviously eye the swift success of his shop and are making plans to enter the frozen dessert arena, Selmani had some cautionary words:

"It's very easy to make bad ice cream."

The veteran restaurateur said he has been in the food industry since he was 14 years old, and the necessary creativity, attention to cleanliness, and focus on freshness make running an ice cream shop an intimidating proposition.

"If you don't have any kind of food or restaurant background, don't even try it," he advised.