Scoop: Sonoma Ice Cream Shop Gets National Award

The very name “31 Flavors” reaches back into childhood memories for many of us, and it’s still impossible for me to pass a Baskin-Robbins without feeling an uncontrollable urge to step inside the cool ice cream parlor and order up a double-scoop of jamoca almond fudge, on a sugar cone.

That flavor is still available   –  only now, it’s Jamoca® Almond Fudge – though it’s no longer just 31 flavors (one for each day of the month), but at least 41 available at any given time out of a flavor library of over 1000.

But the pink and blue décor is still pretty similar, the rainbow of flavors still available, and the old-timey feel of a classic ice cream parlor remains.

According to Dunkin Brands, the parent organization of today’s Baskin-Robbins, their top ice cream store in the country is right here in Sonoma. At least that’s the take-away as local franchisee Troy Taylor’s Baskin-Robbins store in the Marketplace Shopping Center won as the best shop out of over 2700 this year, in a ceremony a few days ago in Boston.

“We didn’t know until the ceremony,” said Taylor of the trip he and his wife Lauren took to Massachusetts recently. “We knew that we had been nominated – along with four other nominees there – but we did not know we won until right up until the awards were being announced. No one knew.”

Taylor started with a much smaller store in Sonoma 25 years ago, and for a short time had two. But for the last seven years he’s been happily digging out scoops, building sundaes and parfaits, making ice cream cakes, and offering Flavor of the Month and daily specials, and of course "tastings on the house," with those cute little pink spoons.

The Taylors took a couple extra days to see Boston, and as Chris Smith reports in today’s Press Democrat they found Boston to be “a very resilient community,” less than a couple weeks after the Boston Marathon bombing.

They received the award from Bill Mitchell, the U.S. and Canada chief brand officer, at the April 30 convention. But though the award went to Taylor as franchisee of the year, he knows what that really means.

“One person receives the award, but no single person earns it,” he said. “I’ve got a great staff here in Robin [Ward] and Ashley [Weikert] and the others, and of course Baskin-Robbins helps out all year.”

He also knows that it’s all about his home town, too. “It has been a very fun place to work,” he says of his 25 years in the ice cream business in Sonoma. “We have a unique area and some really great, great customers.”

“We’re so proud of Troy as franchisee of the year,” said Kristin Egan of the regional office. “And he’s right here in beautiful wine country!”

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