WARREN, Ohio (WKBN) — Power outages across Ohio affected many homes and businesses, but what do you do when you have freezers full of ice cream?
Cockeye’s BBQ and Creamery lost power around 3 p.m. Saturday.
“We forgot all of this ice cream that was in a freezer here that we keep for retail. It stays pretty cold overnight — it’s still frozen, still ice cream. However, it’s not going to be ice cream much longer,” said owner Erik Hoover.
Sunday’s sunshine definitely made it a great day for ice cream. Cockeye’s Creamery tried to make their closure just a bit sweeter for the community.
“We decided to give it away. So we posted online: ‘Free ice cream — come get what you want please,'” Hoover said. “It was a pandemonium. It like Black Friday. I saw some grandmas get pushed down.”
Hoover says he made the post around noon, and couldn’t believe the turnout.
“All of a sudden, there’s 100 cars and it’s nuts and I’m like, ‘What is going on?’ My phone’s going off like crazy. People are liking things, people are s
Sharing it,” Hoover said. “I saw customers I’ve never seen before.”
As for the meats from Cockeye’s BBQ and the additional ice cream:
“We own a refrigerated truck — a big freezer truck — so we brought it from our other business over,” Hoover said. “We had crews stick around, loaded — oh, my gosh — so many scoops of ice cream, you couldn’t believe it, from the freezer next door.”
For now, Hoover will keep things cool in the truck. He hopes to reopen on Wednesday.
