Lakeside Eats & Treats opens in downtown Prior Lake

Prior Lake American

A Prior Lake couple has opened an ice cream shop in downtown Prior Lake.

Pete and Jen Joas opened Lakeside Eats & Treats at the end of August in the former UrbanHalo building. Within a week, they said, the business had sold out of its first batch of ice cream.

“I was planning on doing a soft opening, but we opened the doors and there was a line, and that was it,” Pete said. “It stayed that way for weeks. Not only do I appreciate it, but it was very encouraging to see how the community responded to it.”

Pete Joas said the couple — who have lived in Prior Lake for more than 13 years — got the idea to open an ice cream shop after vacations to their cabin in north Minnesota, where small towns often feature a local ice cream shop downtown.

“When we first moved here, we were like, ‘it’s crazy that there isn’t one,’” Joas said. “We noticed that right away. Now that there is one, it’s amazing how many people thought the same thing.”

The couple sat on the idea until two years ago, when a different space in downtown Prior Lake opened. But the timing was off, Joas said. The two ended up finding a different lease in order to have space to manufacture UrbanHalo, Jen Joas’ headband business.

The lease was shared with the Wild Ruffles boutique, which operated the storefront, and the Joases ran UrbanHalo in the back of the building. Wild Ruffles left the lease and in turn left the pair with the building.

The Joases moved the office and storage portion of the building to another building, and Pete Joas decided in May to give the ice cream shop a shot.

“It was a lot of late nights and cranking away to get it all done,” he said.

Prior Lake Mayor Kirt Briggs said he learned of the ice cream parlor in July, when the owners requested the Economic Development Authority authorize funds to assist in upgrading the electrical system in the building in order to support the freezers.

Briggs said the decision to assist with upgrading the electrical work — which came out to about $3,200 on the city’s part — was “very straightforward,” as residents had said in the community survey that downtown needed an ice cream parlor.

“This was the Economic Development Authority’s opportunity to encourage a business and address something citizens said they’d like to see — a win-win, as it were,” Briggs said.

The goal was to keep it simple, Pete Joas said. The ice cream is sold by the scoop, and the price doesn’t change depending on cone or cup. Water or coffee is $1. At the moment, the shop also offers pizza, hot dog and mini donuts.

“Ice cream is our main thing but coming into the holidays, coming into winter, how are we going to make that look?” Joas said. “We’re still kind of tweaking that out.”

The shop plans to offer various flavors from different ice cream manufacturers so those who return to the shop are able to try something new. Lakeside Eats & Treats offers a “flight” of ice cream for visitors to try a small amount of four different flavors.

At the moment, most of the ice cream is ordered from Cedar Crest Ice Cream.

“I’m going to go more toward the flavor,” Joas said. “It happens to be mostly Cedar Crest, but that will change as I grow and start to make connections and things like that in the ice cream world to put some variety up there and keep it active.”

Briggs said one of the aspects of the shop that promotes the “small-town feel” of Prior Lake is the chalkboard wall. When he stopped in for the first time in September, “who is your favorite teacher” was written on the wall, with residents writing the the answers.

“It creates another sign of a smaller community and our wonderful small-town feel focused on important things in our community such as education,” Briggs said. “That to me was an added plus.”

Joas said he plans to look at changing what hours the shop is open as well as offering soups and hot sandwiches in order to draw in a lunch crowd. Right now, Lakeside Eats & Treats is open on Monday through Saturday from 3-9 p.m. and on Sunday from 3-7 p.m.

“With it getting darker, we knew we were going to have to adjust it once the season changes,” he said.

Briggs said he has seen the parlor bring families in particular to the downtown area.

“It brings parents and their kids after evening activities,” Briggs said. “I have seen car loads of dancers from Premiere Dance Academy with parents after a rehearsal or a recital or a class come to the downtown. Were it not for Lakeside Eats & Treats, that draw would not be possible.”

Joas also said the community needed the parlor as a universal gathering place.

“It’s a place for people to come and just hang out, no matter who you are,” he said.