By Gregory Harutunian~Correspondent
Skooper’s Ice Cream Shoppe and Coffee Café, a lynchpin of the historic Richmond downtown business district, is a popular and well-known gathering place as run by owner Carolyn Janus.
After 19 years of operation, Janus has sold the building and business to Steve Vole, with plans of retirement in Missouri.
Although there will be a change in ownership Oct. 1, Janus is staying at the site until then to oversee the transition and assist the Vole family. In addition to many of the same merchandise items that customers have come to expect including ice cream and homemade fudge, vintage sports cards will also be introduced as a sideline.
“We don’t want to take anything away from the atmosphere of the store, only add to it, and embellish it,” said Vole, Skooper’s new owner. “We’ve been looking for an ideal opportunity with a specialty site in a great community, and here it is.
“We found this venture simply by coming into the store, and buying an ice cream cone. Carolyn (Janus) and I started talking, and I realized this is a perfect setting for what we do too,” he said. “Coupled with an established business location, we were thrilled.”
When Janus began offering merchandise for sale, the theme was to make a child happy. “We brought in many nostalgia pieces that parents would recognize from their own childhood, like specific candies and chewing gums, things they bought at a local store in their younger days.
“It just grew from there, and we’ve been so blessed to be part of the commercial aspect of the downtown business district,” she said. “We’ve made many friends along the way, and it’s that sense of being part of something bigger that makes the store such a happy place.”
Janus has kept the store at the forefront of event participation, as a charter member of the Richmond Business Partners, by helping to organize and execute seasonal programs like Richmond Christmas of Yesteryear. “We are all like a family, and with Steve (Vole), it’s a continuation of that feeling,” she said.
Vole is planning to bring vintage sports memorabilia to the store, and will be accepting items for sale and appraisal. “I’ve been involved with vintage pieces for more than two decades, and my experience is in collecting, which allows me an understanding for the art of the trade.”
He already operates Mundelein’s Sports Cards Plus, which will close when he opens the Richmond location at 10321 Main Street (Route 12). The Main Street structure is a historic in itself, having been rebuilt from the ruins left by the Christmas fire that leveled the downtown area in 1902.
The interior tin ceiling and wooden floors are silent witnesses to construction amenities and architecture from an earlier era. “That what makes it so special, and leaves a place in my heart for the time I’ve spent here,” she said.
“I’ll be here through the summer, and part of the fall, although it is a tough choice to allow for change,” said Janus.