Jimmer Fredette and LaVell Edwards celebrated on Friday — not for the football game, but over ice cream.
I Like Ike’s, a ’50s-style ice cream parlor, hosted Fredette and Edwards to celebrate their grand opening. The parlor, found in the Provo Beach Resort at Riverwoods, boasts Blue Bell ice cream, an ice cream found primarily in the south, and a delicacy for Utahns.
The BYU legends scooped ice cream for the press to promote the opening. Edwards, BYU’s football coach from 1972 to 2000, said he is a big fan of Blue Bell and was happy to help promote it as well as to get a cone of his favorite flavor, vanilla.
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[/media-credit]”I’ve been to Texas, and the first thing I do is track down some Blue Bell ice cream,” Edwards said.
Edwards also joked about Fredette serving him his cone, saying Fredette was not strong enough to get the ice cream from the bottom of the barrel, laughed, then cleared his name, complimenting his service. He also said he thought highly of Ike’s, and said he would return soon.
“It’s a great product they have here, nice facilities and everything they have around,” Edwards said.
Chad Lewis, a former BYU football player and former tight end for the Philadelphia Eagles and St. Louis Rams, helped celebrate Ike’s opening as well. He was excited, he said, when he found out Blue Bell was coming to Utah.
“I had to come in and test out their pralines and cream,” Lewis said. “They passed, it is awesome … I think that everyone in the state of Utah should come here, at least once.”
Along with the ice cream, Lewis said he loves being invited to press events such as these because he loves BYU and representing the school.
“I love BYU,” he said. “I love what BYU stands for, I love the people that go to school there, play sports there … To be considered one of BYU’s alumni means a lot to me.”
Ike’s chose to have Edwards, Lewis and Fredette because of what they mean to the community. They were there to represent the good old days, when life was simple and ice cream parlors were common.
Selling Blue Bell in Utah was not an easy process. Jay Roberts, general manager of Provo Beach Resort and Ike’s, said they spent months talking with different contacts until eventually they found the right one and were able to sell Blue Bell. Although it was a difficult process, he said it was worth it.
“We really think that Blue Bell ice cream is the best,” Roberts said. “We wanted to bring the best up to Provo, and we’ve designed it to have that old-fashioned ice cream parlor feel and it just was a good fit with what we wanted to do.”
I Like Ike’s is hosting a grand opening party tonight from 7 to 9, which will include ’50s-style dancing, games and showings of “I Love Lucy.”
Many BYU students from the south are excited to have Blue Bell close to them. Jessica Hill, a junior from Fort Worth, Texas, majoring in dietetics, said she has missed Blue Bell and cannot wait to have some.
“Blue Bell is a pretty serious tradition in my family,” Hill said. “Every Sunday night after dinner we pull out at least four different flavors of Blue Bell and have at it. I cannot wait to go have it at Ike’s.”
