JAMESVILLE – For Jamesville residents in search of the nearest relief on especially humid days, the hamlet’s newest ice cream shop serves as a long-awaited hot spot for cold treats.
Situated on East Seneca Turnpike in the same plaza as the local post office, Jen & Kerri’s Ice Cream Station had its official opening at noon on the Friday of Independence Day weekend, thus culminating a dream held for years on end by co-proprietor Kelly Keeler, who has otherwise maintained a career in accounting.
“She’s talked about this for as long as I can remember,” said her husband of almost 30 years, Jeff Keeler, who owns the business with her and still works a day job in manufacturing. “She called one day and said she saw an available space in the Jamesville town square that she thought would be perfect. Given that, we peeked in the window and called the landlord, and that’s how the process started. That was last December.”
By the end of March, the couple had decided to name the shop Jen & Kerri’s after their daughters, both of whom reside in Charlotte, North Carolina. The name also happens to rhyme with that of Vermont-based ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s.
Additionally, to complement the train depot kitty-corner from the Jamesville dessert stand, the Keelers tacked the word “station” onto the end of the signage and mounted railroad-related fixtures like a metal replica of a locomotive and a level crossing saltire to the Neapolitan-colored interior walls.
Despite the proximity to the train tracks, the shop’s tucked-away corner location was attractive to Kelly and Jeff Keeler mainly because they knew the distance from busy roads would please parents with small children.
“Families can feel safe that they can pull in there and have a nice place to park and not have to worry about cars zooming by,” Jeff Keeler said.
Although the indoor seating area and planned party room have yet to be constructed, customers can congregate at the tables underneath the shop’s roughly 10-foot overhang.
“If it’s raining out, you can definitely sit there and you won’t get wet,” Kelly Keeler said.
Bordered on one side by a yoga studio and on the other a bakery, the space the shop occupies was previously tenanted by Dadey Insurance Agency for close to a decade and Quarryside Animal Hospital before it moved to Jamesville Road.
According to Kelly Keeler, a vendor that used to sell custard-based ice cream in the plaza sometime around the early 1970s would’ve been the last true-to-form ice cream parlor in the Jamesville community prior to the arrival of Jen & Kerri’s.
Currently the newly opened spot lists on its menu boards six different flavors of soft serve and two dozen flavors of hard Gifford’s ice cream, including mint chocolate chip, campfire s’mores, cotton candy and peanut butter caramel cookie dough.
The establishment also serves banana splits, brownie sundaes, flurries, milkshakes and root beer floats. Other food items can eventually be made using the grease interceptor installed behind the counter.
For more information about Jen & Kerri’s Ice Cream Station, such as its hours of operation, be sure to visit the shop’s Facebook page.
