Korner Kremery celebrates new ownership

WASHINGTON — Longtime community ice cream shop Korner Kremery held a ribbon cutting earlier this month to celebrate its change of ownership. The store on the edge of downtown is now run by mother and son, Dawn Fall-Hayes and Joe Patterson.

“It’s been a staple in the community for over 40 years,” Fall-Hayes said. “Joe and I were thinking of doing a business together, and we just happened to be made aware of this opportunity. It’s just part of Washington’s tradition for kids … it holds a lot of nostalgia for me.”

Patterson said he and his mother are an effective team.

“Mom’s kind of the creative behind it,” he said. “I’m more of the business and background guy. I do the orders and stuff like that, so I felt it would compliment us both, we don’t really bicker or anything.”

The ownership changed in December last year, but the store celebrated Aug. 8. So far, they said things were going well.

“I love it,” Patterson said. “I just like the ability to make people happy … that ability to change someone’s day, at least.”

Since taking ownership, the two have made a number of changes at the store. Along with some interior decoration choices, the shop now serves a wider variety of flavors.

“We’re focused on getting flavors in there that haven’t had a chance to be in there, (like) maple nut, puppy chow, chocolate malt, pumpkin pie,” Patterson said. “We have three flavors of sorbet, which I don’t really think they had before, which is for the dairy-free, lactose intolerant folks.”

Overall, however, they don’t plan to alter too much about the iconic ice cream stop.

“We’re just continuing to provide good customer service and valuable, quality ice cream,” Fall-Hayes said. “We love being able to make people happy with ice cream, it’s one of the best feelings in the world.”

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