No summer is complete without…
“Ice cream!”
But these sweet treats didn’t come from your average operation. For the past few months, Naperville native Lauren McLaughlin has been biking through the rocky roads of area neighborhoods, selling ice cream sandwiches on her Cookies & Cream Cruiser.
“I am overwhelmed with how many people love it… It’s just been a labor of love all summer,” said McLaughlin.
McLaughlin serves up $5 sandwiches in both Naperville and Warrenville, posting her routes ahead of time on Facebook.
“Typically when I post where we’re going to stop, there are people already waiting,” said McLaughlin.
Every ride she offers four flavors: the crusier, the big wheel, the chopper, and a wild card.
“I have one flavor every week that changes, kind of like Crumbl (Cookies) a little bit, and then once that’s sold out, it’s gone, you can’t get it again,” McLaughlin said. “All the sandwiches are named bike-themed, obviously.”
Some of this summer’s weekly wheelie favorites included cookie butter cadence, kickstand key lime, and pedal power peanut butter. Each sandwich is sourced from The Brown Cow, an old-fashioned ice cream parlor in Franklin Park.
From ice cream reviewer to ice cream seller
The idea for the cruiser stemmed from McLaughlin’s ice cream reviews online under the name “The Single Scoop.”
“There we go, we have some chunkaroonies, but not a ton,” said McLaughlin.
After receiving the bike from a friend, she tricked it out with a cooler and a speaker to blast some Bob Marley while serving up treats.
I joined McLaughlin on her route around Naperville’s Brush Park to get the inside scoop on everything Cookies & Cream Cruiser, and I can assure you she’s no sundae driver.
We met some returning customers along the way to the main stop, where a dozen kids were delighted to see the cruiser roll up.
“It’s really awesome to know that the community enjoys it, that it’s a fun little project on the side, and I will say both communities have absolutely embraced it,” said McLaughlin.
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