Ice cream shop Crispy Cones to open in former Carytown Burgers & Fries

Carytown Burgers & Fries will soon become a Crispy Cones location. (Jackie DiBartolomeo photo)

Burgers and fries were once the main menu item at 3449 W. Cary St. Soon, the storefront will be dishing out ice cream.

The former Carytown Burgers & Fries building at the neighborhood’s western edge is planned to be transformed into the first local franchise location of Crispy Cones, a national brand that serves soft-serve ice cream in cinnamon-sugar coated, rotisserie-style grilled dough cones. 

According to plans submitted to the city, the ice cream shop will set up in the front of the around 1,900-square-foot building’s first floor, including a pick-up counter, interior and exterior patio seating totaling 10 seats, dough rolling and cone prep areas, and a kitchen in the rear.

The building’s second floor will have both interior seating and exterior seating on a newly built, second-floor patio for 10 seats total upstairs, along with office space in the rear and an additional bathroom.  

Sam Le, the local franchisee for the Crispy Cones location, confirmed via email that the shop is slated for an October opening. 

Crispy Cones offers grilled dough cones that are covered in cinnamon sugar or other sugary powders. (Courtesy Crispy Cones)

Crispy Cones offers grilled dough cones that are covered in cinnamon sugar or other sugary powders. The cones are then filled with Nutella, peanut butter, cookie butter or jam, along with soft-serve ice cream, which customers can cover with toppings. 

Customized Crispy Cones typically go for about $8 to $9, with other options like an ice cream cup or a pint going for about $4 and $10, respectively. 

The typical Crispy Cones location features a black-and-white, modern aesthetic. The Carytown location is the first for the company in Virginia – Crispy Cones has 25 open or soon-to-be-open locations across 14 states, per its website. 

Carytown Burgers & Fries, which formerly included the West Cary Street location and a Lakeside location, was owned by Mike Barber for nearly 25 years before he sold the locations in 2023. The Carytown spot, which began operating under new ownership, caught fire in early 2024 and has been closed since. 

The restaurant’s general manager said at the time that the fire had damaged the second floor of the building and left a hole in the ceiling. 

Plans filed for the Crispy Cones shop state that structural repair of the building has been completed under a different permit. 

Richmond-based Fultz & Singh Architects is the architect for the project, plans show. The structural engineer is listed as locally based Blue Nest Structural, while the general contractor is to be determined. 

The plans note that all mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems for the building will be redone as part of the project. 

Idaho-based Crispy Cones was founded in 2018 by Jeremy Carlson, who has said the idea was inspired by his time spent in the Czech Republic, where he saw ice cream vendors making cones out of dough. The concept found fame after appearing on ABC show “Shark Tank” in 2023. 

And as the original Carytown Burgers & Fries location moves onto its next chapter as an ice cream shop, the status of its former Lakeside storefront, which also was damaged in a fire in 2024, is unclear.

Tiara Black, the owner of the restaurant’s Lakeside location at 5404 Lakeside Ave., which she renamed Lakeside Burgers & Fries, recently beat a criminal arson charge that sought to blame her for the February 2024 fire that shuttered that restaurant. 

It is unclear whether Black plans to reopen Lakeside Burgers & Fries. The restaurant remains shuttered and is listed as temporarily closed online.

The post Ice cream shop Crispy Cones to open in former Carytown Burgers & Fries appeared first on Richmond BizSense.