Kilwins fudge, caramel, ice cream store nears opening on Broadway
It’s time for fans of chocolate, fudge, caramel, candy apples, ice cream and an array of other goodies to get their collective sweet tooth ready.
Kilwins, the confectionery and ice cream business that dates to 1947, is preparing to open its doors Sunday at 1230 Broadway. Pieces of new equipment here, a license there, and some training of employees are all that remain to get the store ready, Matt Moore, who is franchising the downtown outlet with wife, Christy, said Wednesday.
“The truck from Michigan came in today and we unloaded it,” he said. “We’re putting stuff together and checking stuff in and tomorrow — after the (Georgia) Department of Agriculture is here to give us our license — we’re going to start displaying the products. We’ll begin training on Friday and Saturday and then we’ll open up Sunday morning.”
(Downtown Kilwins chocolate, ice cream store to debut before Christmas)
Kilwins is headquartered in Petoskey, Mich. Moore said the truck that just rolled in includes equipment, ingredients, boxes of chocolate that are hand made in the company’s kitchen, and items that will help with displaying everything. The license is critical, he said.
“The construction was finished yesterday,” Moore said. “Once (the agriculture inspector) gives his approval, we’ll start making fudges and caramel either tomorrow evening or first thing on Friday morning.”
The franchise operator said Kilwins will be open seven days a week, with the exception of major holidays. As of Wednesday, he was considering whether or not to open a half day on Christmas eve. The stores are known for being a place to pick up tasty gifts during the holidays.
“We expect we’ll be fairly busy this week before Christmas,” he said.
Moore said choosing Kilwins as a franchise took quite a bit of thought and visits to stores in the Florida communities of Panama City Beach and Destin. There also were trips to locations operated by Kilwins competitors, which didn’t measure up to the Michigan company.
“We hand make our fudge; we paddle it on the table and make our brittles and corns,” he said. “They also mix ice cream into our store model, which gives us a broader product mix, so we really liked that ... They are very thorough in determining the areas that they want to open their stores in, and they vet those very thoroughly to make sure they’re going to support a store. They have a very organized process.”
As for which of the Kilwins’ sweets he enjoys the most, Moore said he loves the sea salt caramels, the nutcracker sweet caramel corn and the ice cream. His wife is a major fan of caramel apples.
“We have 32 flavors of ice cream and they’re all really good,” he said. “You can only buy Kilwins ice cream in a Kilwins store. It’s only made in one dairy in Ohio. It’s a proprietary recipe. It’s not like a lot of other places where you can get (their ice cream) in multiple sites. You can only get it here.”
The Columbus Kilwins will be only the second in Georgia, with the other in Atlantic Station in Atlanta. There are none in Alabama, although Florida has more than 30. Kilwins, which does franchising, has 110 locations in 21 states.
This story was originally published December 14, 2016 at 3:28 PM with the headline "Kilwins fudge, caramel, ice cream store nears opening on Broadway."