A new ice cream shop called Half Pint Giant is on track to open in downtown Brunswick this spring.
The store will be located at 147.5 Maine St., formerly the home of The Frappe Shoppe.
Co-owner Rachael Cardella said the small store won’t have any seating. Half Pint Giant will sell treats to go: hard- and soft-serve ice cream, milkshakes, floats, sundaes and chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches, along with “dirty sodas” in creative, custom-tailored flavors with a splash of cream.
The shop will offer eight flavors of Gifford’s hard-serve ice cream, plus rotating dairy-free options. They’ll also sell vanilla soft-serve ice cream, to which customers can add a selection of mix-ins like candied bacon, espresso nibs, chocolate chips, maple cookie crumbles, toasted marshmallow, nuts and candies.
This is the first foray into food business ownership for Cardella and her co-owner husband, Joe. Cardella currently owns the Brunswick design agency, Revel Engine, and Joe was a software developer until last year.
“It’s something totally different for us,” she said. “We’re learning as we go. There’s a lot of great small businesses here in Brunswick, and we want to be a part of helping downtown thrive.””
Cardella expects Half Pint Giant will make its own hard-serve ice cream later this year or by next year at the latest. The Cardellas wanted to launch with Gifford’s while they acclimate to the space and the rhythms of the business.
Half Pint Giant aims to launch sometime in April, and the shop will be open Tuesday-Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
This story was originally published by the Maine Trust for Local News. Tim Cebula can be reached at [email protected].
