NewCanaanite.com (https://newcanaanite.com/tag/gofer-ice-cream)
Please join us for our 35th Annual Ice Cream Social Sunday, May 31st from 1-3pm. This festive celebration and antique car show will include ice cream (generously provided by Gofer) as well as cakes and cookies donated by the National Charity Leagues. The town band will play patriotic music and there will be old fashioned games for kids. And, its all FREE!
Phil and Mina Luongo have been frequenting Gofer Ice Cream with their kids for years. The Norwalk residents’ kids attend Strawberry Hill School in Stamford, and on the way home they regularly hit the Gofer on High Ridge Road.
An accountant by trade, Phil Luongo in December 2022 spotted a sign inside at one point about becoming a franchise owner. “I said to my wife, ‘We always wanted to open our own business, what about Gofer Ice Cream?’ ” he recalled. They signed up with the parent company to become franchisees a few months later and learned about an opportunity in New Canaan, where an owner was stepping away from ice cream shop at 103 Main St.—for decades the Baskin Robbins, which closed in December 2019. The Luongos became owners Jan.
Gofer Ice Cream downtown is closed for the month of January for renovations, officials say. The shop at 103 Main St. will reopen in February, according to the business’s website.
Opened just after the pandemic took hold in 2020, Gofer took over the commercial space long occupied by Baskin Robbins. It isn’t clear what renovations are coming, why Gofer is taking on the project now or just when in February it expects to reopen. Emails sent to Gofer’s owner were not immediately returned.
Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, located on 88 Elm Street, opens its doors to the public on Thursday, Dec. 14.
Shoppers on Wednesday took to downtown New Canaan in greater numbers than they had in weeks, as several “non-essential” retail stores reopened, with public health precautions, for the first time in more than two months. Asked how she felt about the milestone in New Canaan’s phased reopening, a gradual process guided by both state and local officials, regular downtown shopper Caroline Stuart said, “Woo-hoo.”
“It’s like Christmas has come early,” the Weston resident said while shopping inside J. McLaughlin on Elm Street. “I’m thrilled. We get to go back. We get to interact with people.