Bettendorf ready to welcome first Country Style Ice Cream

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By Doug Schorpp | Tuesday, June 03, 2008 |

Country Style Ice Cream and Hawaiian Style Coffee will open this week in Bettendorf, providing the franchise business its only Iowa location.

And company owner Kent Kindelsperger is actively searching for other locations in the Quad-Cities.

Kari and Tres Gomez are owners of the store at 2561 E. 53rd St., which will be managed by Kari Gomez. A grand opening is set for 4 to 6 p.m. June 5.

“We are very excited to bring Country Style Ice Cream and Hawaiian Style Coffee back to Bettendorf,” she said. “We are proud to support a local product and feel that the quality of the ice cream and coffee products are second to none.”

Like Country Style stores in East Moline and Coal Valley, Ill., the Bettendorf site will have a drive-through window and a coffee shop. Gomez said she eventually expects to offer items to go with the coffee.

“Bettendorf will look more like a coffee shop than East Moline does,” Kindelsperger said, referring to one of his three company-owned stores.

The coffee shop aspect also is present in his stores at Kennedy Square in East Moline, which he co-owns with a partner, and Coal Valley, Ill. He also owns the original Country Style store on 16th Street and Avenue of the Cities in Moline. Bettendorf, along with stores in Lehigh Acres, Fla., and Chester, Va.

Kindelsperger leased the Moline store in 1986 from Wayne Lindgren, who founded it in 1947 when he followed his brother, Chester “Whitey” Lindgren, into the world of ice cream. Chester Lindgren founded Whitey’s ice cream shops in 1933. Both men were great-uncles of Kindelsperger.

Kindelsperger said the Silvis, Ill., store closed a couple of years ago when the East Moline location was opened. A new site also opened last year in Coal Valley. A franchise store near Five Points in Davenport, which was converted from a Dairy Queen, closed last fall. And a store located on U.S. 67 in Milan closed several years ago.

Kindelsperger said he is pursuing other locations, including northwest Davenport. He also would like to open a store in Rock Island and return to Milan.

Nationwide, he said the Florida business will be his top-producing store. He said he also has received inquiries from potential buyers in other parts of Florida and the Dallas area.

If you go:

The new Country Style Ice Cream and Hawaiian Style Coffee at 2561 E. 53rd St., Bettendorf, opens Thursday. Its hours are 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Doug Schorpp can be contacted at (563) 383-2292 or dschorpp@qctimes.com.