Lala's Ice Cream Opens on Main Street

Lala's Ice Cream Parlor on Main Street has officially opened. The tiny ice cream parlor tucked away near the CSX bridge struggled to obtain necessary permits for nearly 18 months, according to owner Ana Torres, but finally opened on July 5.

"We're excited to be open and having people come in," said Torres on Friday.

Inside, the 850-square foot store looks cozy. Customers are immediately greeted with several flavors of Hershey's ice cream inside a glass case. There's nowhere to sit down, but the location directly on Main Street provides customers with a place to grab a quick cone or cupcake as they window shop.

"We hope to be a place where people can bring their kids and get ice cream and have a hot dog," said Torres.

Torres and her boyfriend, Brendan Flannery, own the shop as well as Lala's hot dog cart, which occasionally serves gourmet hot dogs with a variety of toppings on Main Street.

The shop doesn't currently serve hot dogs, but Torres said they will soon, once the health department permit is approved.

For now, the shop offers hand dipped ice cream ($2.50 for one scoop, $3 for 2 scoops, $3.50 for 3 scoops) with toppings such as hot fudge, gummy bears, strawberry syrup and caramel. They also serve shakes made with any flavor of ice cream (such as coffee, chocolate, cookie dough, butter pecan, mint chocolate chip and others) and floats—ice cream combined with Coke, root beer or orange soda.

A soft serve ice cream machine will be installed in the next week or so, according to Torres.

The ice cream parlor faces competition from the Scoop-AHH-Dee-Doo stand in Tongue Row, which opened in April 2012, and Bean Hollow, the coffee shop across the street from Lala's, which also sells ice cream by the scoop.

But despite the competition, Torres says they've been doing well in their first week of business. She said currently they're in the midst of a soft opening, but hope to do a bigger grand opening in about two weeks after they finish decorating the space.

During the soft opening the parlor is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. everyday, according to Flannery.