Return for biz: ex-Town resident seeks to bring Bruster’s Real Ice Cream
Robert Allen of Knoxville, franchise owner, submitted a site plan at Farragut Municipal Planning Commission’s Staff/Planner meeting in Farragut Community Center Tuesday, March 4, for the ice cream shop to be located on 1.57 acres off Parkside Drive.
While still in the planning stages, Allen said, as of now, he does not have a projected construction or opening date.
“We’re waiting for this process to go through, contract bids to go out,” he said. “There’s a lot to be done before we nail down a specific date that we want to try to meet.”
Still, “I raised my children in Farragut (and) I’m looking forward to coming back here,” Allen said.
Regarding the Parkside Drive location, “I just kept looking for a place that would facilitate all of our needs and be able to support the community,” he said. “There’s not a lot of property in Farragut anymore, so it took some time and effort; but working with everybody, it all came into place.”
Bruster’s Ice Cream is “known as a hand-dipped ice cream,” Allen said. “We make it fresh in the stores every day. Bruster’s owns its own dairy in Titusville, Pennsylvania, and we get our dairy products from them, and each and every store makes its own ice cream.”
Located to the north of Home Federal Bank, “it’s a pretty small building,” Town Community Development director Mark Shipley observed. “They have a couple other ones in Knox County.”
Allen is planning for a large, outdoor patio area at the Parkside Drive store, “which is a good thing,” Shipley said.
“All of our locations have patios and outdoor seating,” Allen said. “We don’t have any indoor seating at any of our locations. It’s designed to come up for ice cream and enjoy the community.”
“And then you’ve got the drive-thru, which is basically coming in from the main access. It has a shared access easement,” Shipley said.
“Regular parking is on the north side of the site,” he added. “Not really a lot of (staff) comments on the site plan. They did a good job. Of course, this is all kind of pre-graded for the most part.
“The building’s pretty much all brick. It’s a good-looking building.”
The only comment Shipley and staff had on the building “is that the colors are in our color palate,” he said. “We have a pretty broad color palette for accent colors. That’s part of the architectural design standards.
“Just bring a colors and a materials board to the (next) Planning Commission meeting, which will be Thursday, March 20,” Shipley added.
