‘We are really excited about this!’

CRESTVIEW — Few things can hit the spot on a hot Florida day like an old-fashioned banana split or an ice cream sundae.

How about a chocolate malt or vanilla shake? Tom’s Main Street Ice Cream (formerly Buchanan’s Ice Cream and Soda Shop) will soon celebrate a grand reopening at their 269 N. Main St., location.      

Tom and Brenda Petoskey are the new owners of Tom’s Main Street Ice Cream, which is located inside the Rustic Reflections building across from Tropical Palm. They take over from Leah Buchanan, who had owned the ice cream shop since October of 2016.

Buchanan had moved to Crestview in 2015 and felt that the Main Street area needed an ice cream shop.

“It has been an amazing adventure and the new owners have my full support!” Buchanan said.

The Petoskeys moved to Crestview in 1998 from South Florida. Tom retired in May of this year as a lineman with Duke Energy. Brenda is an administrator at Emmanuel Baptist Church. Tom was originally planning to go into the cattle business after retirement, but when he heard about the ice cream shop looking for new owners, he decided that was where he needed to be.

“We will keep the store as it is for a few weeks,” he said. “We will still have the same local Southern Craft Creamery ice cream. We will have five flavors of ice cream each day and probably change out the flavors every three days.” Southern Craft Creamery is a family- owned business in Marianna.

Petoskey will be running the day-to-day operations of the new store and Brenda will be there when not at her other job. The same employees who were working for Buchanan’s will also be employed at Tom’s, according to the new owners. Opening and closing times will remain the same for a while. Earlier and later times may be added later.

Ice cream favorites like the banana splits and chocolate sundaes will still be a staple at Tom’s Ice Cream. Other treats such as malts, shakes, floats and cones will also be served.

“We are really excited about this! Main Street in Crestview is building and growing. Having an ice cream shop downtown keeps us connected to the community,” said Petoskey.

The Petoskeys said government hurdles have forced them to change their expected grand opening date, which was not available for this publication.

“Due to unforeseen circumstances, we are having to push back our opening to the week of September 11,” the shop’s Facebook page states. “Our Grand Opening will be September 15 and 16 if no further complications arise. We will be working to make up for lost time by having an expanded selection of ice cream on reopening.”

Regular hours are Mondays through Thursdays, noon to 6 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays, noon to 7 p.m. The shop is closed on Sundays.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: ‘We are really excited about this!’