Two local ice cream moguls cross paths in Rehoboth
Tom King, of Kings Ice Cream fame in Lewes and Milton, and Chip Hearn, of the Ice Cream Store in Rehoboth Beach, encountered one another outside Hearn's emporium Friday night. The scene was electric but the men kept their molecules positively aligned. Chip, parked on one of Rehoboth's distinctive white benches, had a direct view of the front of his operation.
"I'm watching the flow of the operation. Just seeing how things are working, always looking for efficiencies."
The seeing wasn't easy at 9 p.m. on a Friday night in the peak of the summer of 2015. People were lined up 10 across and five deep as they read the endless numbers of flavors, trying to make decisions on what to order, whispering to each other about flavors with names like Booger and Better Than Sex.
Chip's always been a showman with a flair for entertainment, whether at his Country Squire, the Starboard, or the Ice Cream Store.
He flashed blue eyes, and Tom too. Just the way nature has worked with them; not insinuating that all successful ice cream entrepreneurs have blue eyes or even start with blueberry ice cream.
"Hey Chip, is it a good season?"
He grinned as he answered. Looking at the scene, it was almost a ridiculous question.
"It's a great season. Always challenging to find good workers, but I can't complain."
Close encounters of the ice cream kind.
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Dennis Forney has been a journalist on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972 and has been writing his Barefootin’ column for The Whale and then the Cape Gazette for more than 30 years. Like his Barefootin' Facebook page to get notified of blog updates.
