Girl Scouts, pups, fresh-made ice cream and tradition:

On the outside of her left arm, Victoria Wisley has a tattoo no bigger than the size of three quarters. Resting right above her watch band is a small, single scoop ice cream cone.

When Wisley was 14, about two decades ago, she was searching for a job. Her great grandpa went to church with the assistant manager of an ice cream parlor just down the street from the neighborhood where her family lived.

Wisley pulled into the shop for an application and now, with its season opening Friday, she has worked at Bruster’s Real Ice Cream for nearly 20 years. She was promoted to general manager about seven years ago.

She and three other team members got the matching tattoo — originally doodled by one of the store’s employees — to commemorate their time there when the shop was closed for the season one winter. She said she wants to get the simple black ink tattoo filled in with color and sprinkles.

The franchised ice cream shop, more commonly known as Bruster’s, opened in 1998 on the far east end of Third Street, on the way to Lake Monroe. As the 27th franchise to open in the U.S., the Bloomington Bruster's is now considered a pioneer location, Wisley said. Bruster’s now has nearly 200 independently owned locations across 22 states and Guyana.

Wisley said a lot has changed since she first started in 2005. At the time, Bruster’s only accepted cash payments, and she can only recall having her personal MySpace page, much different from the several active Bruster’s social media channels Wisley manages now. She had to memorize all the menu prices to manually punch into the register, compared to the point-of-sale system Bruster’s has now, which takes online orders.

But for the 27 years Bruster’s has been open in Bloomington, the ice cream shop has made ice cream fresh in-house daily, offering at least 24 of the brand’s 150 flavors in rotation each visit.

Wisley was in the shop Wednesday evening, preparing for Bruster’s noon opening in the next two days on Feb. 28. A mix of pop music like Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!” played throughout the empty parlor. Since Monday, Wisley and her team did everything from yard work, to unloading the truck delivery, to making fresh ice cream.

But she said it's more than just a week of prep-work.

“I kind of work on stuff throughout the winter,” Wisley said. “With marketing, planning our social media calendar and what promotions we’re going to do.”

Bruster’s offers “BYOB!” — a weekly “bring-your-own-banana" promotion for half-off banana splits every Thursday. It hosts customer appreciation night every third Tuesday of each month, gives away a free extra scoop in rainy or snowy weather and will celebrate a pajama day March 8, which is also a fundraiser for the Bloomington Animal Shelter.

If guests wear pajamas, or bring an item to donate to the shelter, they get a free small cone of any flavor. Wisley said that several animal shelter employees are regular visitors, so the fundraiser was an “easy choice.” Still, she hopes events like this can introduce new people to Bruster’s, too.

“It is about the experience, even if they’ve never been here before and they’ve seen it on a post or the sign, then they get to try our ice cream.” Wisley said. “They get to try a fresh waffle cone, they get to bring their kids, and the kids get to enjoy it. And most likely they’ll come back, and they’ll get ice cream later or they’ll tell their friends and families about it.”

Bruster’s also works with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Bloomington, making vanilla ice cream for the annual Strawberry Shortcake Festival each summer. It’s also starting a “Read Your Way to a Reward!” bookmark program with local schools this season where students get a free kids’ size ice cream after reading a certain number of books.

Crew Leader Rachel Kring was in the store with Wisley on Wednesday evening. As a junior studying events management at IU, Kring has opportunities to use what she’s learned in the classroom at Bruster’s.

Wisley said Bruster’s set up a sundae bar for the United Way Blue Jean Ball, which Kring served at. Wisley realized she’d never had an employee with event and promotions knowledge and wanted to invite Kring to do more of the like.

Other than just professional development, Kring said she’s built relationships with team members, spending time outside of work at the gym or going out to dinner together. She said the job, and the friends that came with it, have been a big part of her college experience.

“I feel like I’ve met a lot of people that I’ll remember throughout my life and like, keep contact with after I move on from Bruster’s and start in the event world,” Kring said.

Regardless of weather, both Wisley and Kring said they expected opening day to be busy, especially later in the afternoon, after work and school let out. They had one day left to prepare.

“I think overall we’re just excited,” Kring said. “We expect it to be pretty busy.”

Nearing 6 p.m. Friday evening, a crowd surrounded Bruster’s, lining up at the windows to order. Families sat in the grass while Harper Jent, a freshman at Bloomington High School North and an eighth-year girl scout, sold cookies on the west side of the building with her mom, Caree Jent.

The ice cream shop will host “Girl Scout Days,” from Feb. 28 to March 9, with different troop members selling cookies several days throughout. Harper said she’s been selling at Bruster’s for a few years and got first pick on when to sell, so she chose opening day.

“We’ve been coming here for years,” Caree said. “It’s really good ice cream; it’s just kind of nice that it has a big variety of flavors.”

Bruster’s also has three girl scout inspired ice cream flavors, “Campfire Smores,” “Thin Mint” and “Caramel Coconut Cookie.” The Jents were handing out samples until the ice cream got too melted.

Ezra Dehner, a Bloomington native, enjoyed chocolate ice cream with rainbow sprinkles, joined by his wife Taylor, young daughter Charlie and dogs Milo and Hero, who themselves were indulging in vanilla pup cups.

“Three of my high school girlfriends worked here,” Ezra said, laughing. “And now I just bring my wife here, she never worked here.”

Ezra said Bruster’s is a staple, and the only place his family would go for ice cream.

“We don’t hesitate if the weather is nice,” Ezra said. “We like to come here, you know, it makes the day pretty fun.”

Scott and Jennifer Fettchenhauer brought their dog Luna to celebrate her fourth birthday on Friday. The family moved to Bloomington 11 years ago and recalled coming to Bruster’s often when their now 25-year-old son was younger.

Luna’s small, birthday pup-cup had been licked clean, flipped face down on the pavement in front of her parents' feet. She, of course, had vanilla; her parents had “Coffee Toffee” and a hot fudge sundae.

“Everyone would kind of meet up, you know, at Bruster’s” Jennifer said. “It’s a meet up place for all ages and families. It’s lots of fun and we definitely run into people that we know when we come here. It’s just a fun time.”

Like what you're reading?
Support independent, award-winning student journalism. Donate.