Mongoose Junction just got a little sweeter.
For those of you in and around Cruz Bay lately, you may have noticed some construction going on over at Mongoose Junction, adjacent to Just Beach. Well the construction has ended and an awesome little ice cream shop has opened.
St. John Scoops served up its first dish of homemade ice cream Friday and so far, the reception has been wonderful.
“It’s really been fantastic,” owner Collette Rethage said Sunday. “I’ve gotten so much positive feedback. Everyone loves the fact that all of the ice cream is natural. Everyone loves the fact that I am creating them on site and that they’re fresh. And everyone loves the fact that I am making some of them with alcohol.”
Alcohol in ice cream??!! (St. John, I love you. Seriously, I do.)
So how did this all come about? Well this isn’t Collette’s first foray in the ice cream business. She owned iScream over in Wharfside Village for six years where she served soft serve ice cream only.
“When the lease was up (at iScream), I approached Glen Speer at Mongoose Junction,” Collette said. “Glen built Mongoose by hand, and it’s such a beautiful, classy space. He didn’t have anything available at the time, but he did say there was a spot under St. John Insurance and he had a vision of a tiny ice cream shop there. I wanted to make my own ice cream; I didn’t want to do soft serve anymore. So I gave him the dimensions of everything I needed, and he created and built exactly what I needed.”
Thus St. John Scoops was born.
Collette plans to make more than 100 flavors, which will be continuously changing. Its current offerings will be posted daily on their Facebook page. They have fruity concoctions – all of which are made with real, puréed fruit – flavors for kids like bubble gum, traditional flavors like mint chocolate chip and cookies and cream, and island-inspired flavors like mango, passionfruit and guava.
And as we mentioned, she also has some flavors made with real alcohol like red wine and champagne sorbets. Collette, who is engaged to Cheech of St. John Brewers, even plans to incorporate some of their brews into her ice cream. So if they happen to be brewing up a batch of Island Hoppin’ IPA, you can very well guarantee that Collette will have a batch of Island Hoppin’ IPA ice cream that week. Delish!
For my imbibers out there, Collette also plans on making Painkiller and Bushwacker flavors – with real alcohol of course.
St. John Scoops is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Click here to “like” it on Facebook and to see its daily flavors.
Now that the ice cream shop construction is done, wondering if Mongoose Junction will put a handicap parking spot designation next to the only handicap accessible ramp into a portion of the shopping center.
Yummy! Can’t wait to go there on my next trip. See you soon!