Starting the morning with a scoop

MERRILL, Wis. — A true aficionado of ice cream might not need a reason to enjoy a scoop or two of the creamy frozen delight for breakfast. But for the rest of the world, National Ice Cream for Breakfast Day rolls around each year, celebrated on the first Saturday of February.

For the fifth time, Shelby Dzwonkowski, owner of The Grand Stand ice cream shop in Merrill, hosted an event to commemorate the day, which took place Feb. 1 at Cosmo Hall in Merrill.

“I feel like someone who didn’t live in Wisconsin came up with that idea,” Dzwonkowski said. “We do a full breakfast to gain more interest because ice cream isn’t necessarily in the front of everyone’s mind when it’s 30 below outside but it is definitely our focus, once they’re here.”

While the holiday was not born in Wisconsin, pop culture lore places the origin of the event in Rochester, New York, home of Florence Rappaport in the 1960s, who started it in an effort to entertain her housebound children on a cold and snowy winter day.

Dzwonkowski had never planned to open an ice cream shop, although her family owned and operated Merrill’s movie theater. Then, one day she ordered Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream at a restaurant and an idea was planted.

“I’m an ice cream snob, and it was so good,” Dzwonkowski said. “I kept the napkin, because I said that someday, somewhere I was going to sell this brand of ice cream. We never intended to have an ice cream shop, but here we are.”

Ten years ago, Dzwonkowski opened The Grand Stand, selling Chocolate Shoppe Ice cream, a premium, high milk fat product made in Madison.

“I was a stay-at-home mom, and when my kids went to school, it turned out I didn’t have a job anymore,” Dzwonkowski said. “We started an ice cream shop. Our first location was a year-round, sit-down shop.”

Five years later, the building The Grand Stand currently occupies — a seasonal, walk-up facility located near the Merrill Area Recreation Complex, that was formerly a Briq’s Soft Serve — became available. The Dzwonkowskis jumped on the opportunity to purchase the building.

“That has been really big for our business, being close to the MARC,” Dzwonkowski said. “We’re the place everyone goes to celebrate a win or to pout after a loss.”

Becoming part of those traditions has brought unexpected joy to Dzwonkowski.

“At my first shop, I overheard a dad ask his daughter if they should get their ice cream to go or eat in,” Dzwonkowski said. “The little girl told her dad it was their tradition to eat it at the shop. It hit me then. We don’t just sell ice cream, we’re somebody’s family tradition, making memories. We’re part of their team event and experience. I’ve gotten to know a lot of people and it’s an honor to have a place in their family.”

A connoisseur of hand-scooped ice cream, Dzwonkowski added soft-serve to her menu with the move.

“I spent the first five years of my ice cream career telling people soft serve wasn’t ice cream,” Dzwonkowski said. “Now I take it all back. Soft serve has its place. Our fusions and shakes are definitely easier to make with soft serve — but I’m still a hand-scooped person, and I always will be.”

This winter, a new opportunity for growth presented itself.

A Chinese rickshaw-style vehicle became available and Dzwonkowski took on the challenge of turning it into an ice cream truck that looks like a giant waffle cone. The truck will allow Dzwonkowski to take her ice cream shop mobile, booking remote events.

In addition to specializing in ice cream, The Grand Stand serves a full menu, which Dzwonkowski says creates an additional draw, bringing in a lunch crowd from the nearby industrial park.

“We try to keep everything as Wisconsin as we can,” Dzwonkowski said. “We sell cheese curds made right here in Merrill, we get our soft serve from a local dairy and we use Klement’s brats and Sprecher’s root beer, both made in Milwaukee. We didn’t initially intend to do that, but the more we worked with local people through the Chocolate Shoppe, the more important it became to us.”

Operating her business with a Wisconsin-centric focus has opened her eyes to how much the state’s economy is impacted by agriculture, Dzwonkowski said.

“People that aren’t involved in the dairy industry or in agriculture might not realize how big of a deal it really is for our state,” Dzwonkowski said. “That is why we try to keep our menu local to Wisconsin. Being from the cheese state, it becomes something you are really proud of.”