Ice cream shop to open near Kirkwood

The return of an ice cream shop to downtown Bloomington will not be as sweet as Hartzell Martel and his wife had hoped.

The Martels are opening a new ice cream shop on Dunn Street within a few weeks, but they did not receive the rights to the name Jiffy Treet, Hilary Martel said.

The Martels previously owned the ice cream shop on Kirkwood Avenue, then called Hartzell's Jiffy Treet, for 14 years. The store was forced to close in 2006 because the building was bought out, not because of poor business, Hartzell Martel said. The couple still maintains the Jiffy Treet located on Pete Ellis Drive.

“We hoped to come back sooner, but we wanted to find the right space,” Hilary Martel said. “We miss being downtown.”

Hartzell Martel said the original owners of Jiffy Treet told him he was under discretion for usage of the title.

“In another article I read the owners said they intend to make it a corporation,” he said. “But we just don’t know why we weren’t allowed the name.”

The Martels owned the Kirkwood Jiffy Treet for 14 years, Hartzell Martel said. The downtown area is different from the location of the Jiffy Treet on Pete Ellis Drive, he said. With the shop downtown, there will be more room to try different things.

The exact opening date of the shop is currently undecided.

“We really don’t know. It could be a little over three weeks, it could be less,” Hartzell Martel said. “It all depends on how much we get done in the store.”

After being denied rights to the name, Hilary Martel said they might call the shop Hartzell’s to keep it similar to the previous Kirkwood  location.

By not naming the shop Jiffy Treet, the Martel’s will be able to sell different products and flavors not available at other Jiffy Treet shops, Hilary Martel said.

“At first we were upset we couldn’t use the Jiffy Treet name,” she said. “It will be hard to promote both stores with different names. But now we will get a fresh start, a fresh spin.”