OPENING ON SCHEDULE
Popular ice cream and hamburger joint has operated as a family business for 58 years
Iconic food outlets will be ready for March break.
A family-owned ice cream and hamburger joint will open as scheduled in time for March break, despite having its two locations up for sale.
The Tasty Treat ice cream chain has been an iconic Cape Breton establishment for 58 years.
Co-owner Betty DezagiacomoMacIsaac said there is a pending offer on the Keltic Drive location in Coxheath. Its listed market price is $87,500.
“We will operate until we sell,” she said in an interview Friday. “We will be opening in time for March break. It depends on weather. If we don’t get any snowstorms that week we should be open around March 10.”
Dezagiacomo-MacIsaac, her brothers Michael and John Dezagiacomo and sister Mary Melski, took over the business from their parents. But as they grow older into their retirement years they have been looking to get out of the business.
The Grand Lake Road location next to the Mayflower Mall has a small eat-in area and a drivethru window. It’s currently listed for $389,900 and is described as a “fully equipped turn-key” restaurant.
The Tasty Treat located in Howie Centre was bought by Louisbourg Seafoods Ltd. owner Jim Kennedy in May 2016. While the takeout-only ice cream and burger shop stayed open through the 2016 season, the building was torn down in March 2017 to make way for a new development.
At the time, it was expected a newly rebuilt ice cream shop and a separate fish market would take its place. But there’s been no activity on the site along Highway 4 since the old building was torn down last winter.
Dannie Hansen, a spokesman for Louisbourg Seafoods, said Kennedy does not want to comment on his plans right now.
“He hasn’t made his decision on what he’s going to do yet,” Hansen said.
The existing two Tasty Treat locations typically hire 14 employees between them for the year and hire as many as six students over the peak summer period, Dezagiacomo-MacIsaac said.
The Grand Lake Road restaurant normally closes at the end of November, while the Keltic Drive location shuts down a month earlier.
She said looking back it would have been nice to sell the business as one entity to keep the Tasty Treat name alive for years to come.
“We have said if we sold all of them together or even the two that are left together, (a buyer) could still use the name. We would sell them the name with it but it’s not happening that way so who knows.”