text: Ice Cream Factory
Hours of
operation
Sunday 12pm - 9pm
Monday 12pm - 9pm
Tuesday Closed
Wednesday 12pm - 9pm
Thursday 12pm - 9pm
Friday 12pm - 10pm
Saturday 12pm - 10pm
267-ICE-HERO
267-423-4376
4369 Main Street
Philadelphia, PA
Currently playing on
Wall-O-Vision
Joust

1982's Joust was one of the first video games to popularize two-player cooperative play. Featuring knights mounted on flying ostriches, players wage war with an army of buzzard-mounted adversaries. The key to successful engagements is to touch enemies only when you are higher than them.

September 01, 2016

To save precious space inside the shop, we planned to install an external heating and cooling system on the roof. One thing we weren't sure of, however, was how exactly we'd get such a large piece of equipment up on such a narrow perch.

The answer, it turns out, was a massive crane. Thanks, massive crane!

This guy obviously has a deep trust in the process.

This thing could have easily lifted our HVAC unit above buildings twice the size of these.

Now, it sits upon our tiny roof.

Inside the shop, the electricity and ethernet lines are being run.

These particular receptacles will power our menu boards. By "menu boards", I do of course mean "LCD monitors mounted to the wall".

August 24, 2016

This week our major masonry projects are just about finished up. The most striking of these are the textured block columns that surround the doorway, which wrap the steel posts with a defiant "come at me bro" air of impenetrability. These columns will allow us to install a door (startled gasp) sometime next week, which should prove to be a great boon to the shop's business success.

The windows have been framed, and we hope to have glass coming in shortly. If cartoons have taught us anything, this means we'll have to keep a stern eye out for baseball-playing youths on nearly every future sunny day.

Just in time for the region's first wave of pleasant autumnal weather, our HVAC system is being installed! The spiral ductwork will be exposed; it is metal and therefore looks rad.

August 15, 2016

In our last update, you may have noticed that the exterior corner wall was surrounded by a rather deep trench. Now, that trench has been filled and topped with a handsome curb, reducing the population of ankle-hungry holes on the property by 100%.

Today also saw the completion of parapet wall framing, which will pave the way for our roofing crew to complete their work on top of the building.

Inside, the walls are being chipped down and refaced, which is probably one of the most visually transformative interior events we've had thus far. Every day, this thing starts to more closely resemble an honest-to-goodness building.

August 10, 2016

We have three distinct teams working in the shop today: carpentry, concrete, and plumbing. Our general contractor Tim Deily has been putting his carpentry chops to work building the counters from which we will prepare THE BEST ICE CREAM YOU'VE EVER TASTED.

If you close your eyes, you can just about smell the waffles and hot fudge.

This is a look at what you'll see when you first enter the building. The back of the shop will probably *not* be a pitch black void, but we're still feeling that one out.

August 05, 2016

Now that the steel has been installed, our crew is building the wood framing that will support everything else. With the construction wall down, we can get our first feel for how the shop will look to pedestrians on Main Street.

Standing inside the building, you can really appreciate the new open facade.

August 02, 2016

The next major phase of buildout is underway! We now have an unyielding frame of bulletproof steel to serve two important purposes: 1) support a fully-openable corner window and 2) look really cool.


This piece weighs over 800lb. Steel workers are apparently unconcerned supermen, they moved it into place by hand.


A post is installed inside the alley wall.


A hand-powered lift is used to place a facade beam.


That thing gets pretty high!


Once lifted, the beam is bolted into its final position.


The beams running along the ceiling will be visible inside the finished shop. In both form and function, this will be an ice cream factory.


Transom windows will be built between these beams. We've heard that natural light is something people tend to enjoy.


Our seating will run along these perimeter of these plate walls.


The steel plate will be visible outside as the lower portion of the new facade.

June 24, 2016

Those of you who have visited Main Street in the past week have probably noticed the temporary sign attached to our temporary wall. I know at very least a few hundred people have seen it; traffic to our website sprang up as if to testify to the unholy power of advertising.

We're planning on starting our new structural steelwork next week. In the meantime, I have a photo of our permanent sign to share from our friends at Urban Neon. It's a precision-cut piece of aluminum, digitally printed with our favorite ice cream-eating robot.

May 17, 2016

Our friends at D+D Concrete finished demolishing the existing facade today. There are no longer any walls on the front of the building, because walls are for chumps.

This new arrangement really lets the natural light in.

We began preliminary work grafting an entirely new face onto the shop, but plans were scrapped due to an inordinate number of crying children distracting the crew.

Next up will be the new steelwork!

May 16, 2016

Last week, the final segment of our concrete floor was poured. You can see that the front of the shop is the lowest point (ideal for a no-step entrance), followed by a short ramp for restroom entry and three steps after that for admittance to the kitchen.

This week is all about demolition. We're tearing down the exterior walls on the front of the building to make way for the incoming wrap-around window.

To maintain structural integrity in the face of, uh, wall-lessness, the roof of the building has been shored with a lattice of temporary beams.

Don't worry about the old walls -- they seem to be pretty happy about the prospect of being eradicated.

I don't know about you guys, but I for one am really excited to see this orange stucco get smashed to pieces.

April 28, 2016

It's a generally accepted practice to prepare ice cream in a kitchen with a floor.

I casually tested the waters on this matter while in the health inspector's office. Playing it unbelievably cool, I wondered out loud, "Sure, non-porous floors are great, but I bet it would be ALMOST as code compliant to cook above piles of construction debris." The sharp look the clerk gave me told me everything I needed to know: floors are a required kitchen element AND my sunglasses look really awesome.

Today the fine folks at D&D Concrete started pouring our new floors, and they're looking fantastic.

Incidentally, I decided to make a poster for D&D Concrete.

Once the floors have been poured, facade demolition will begin!

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