Business Profile: King Kone, Somers

It has been a popular dessert destination in Somers since 1953.

King Kone, with its symbol of a smiling soft serve cone with sprinkles, has been serving frozen and savory treats for generations and it is still going strong.

Continuing the tradition of the eatery are its current owners, the husband and wife team of Katonah residents Deb and Brian Hopkins, who purchased King Kone 14 years ago.

“There aren’t many places like this, I think, any more,” Deb Hopkins said last week. “It makes people feel very nostalgic.”

Buying King Kone was not the first foray into the ice cream business for the couple, Hopkins noted. The couple owned, and continues to own, a fleet of Good Humor trucks.

“We’ve been in the ice cream business since the early ‘90’s,” she said. “We used to have a gourmet shop in Armonk and a lot of our customers for catering jobs for parties and things on the weekends had asked us for ice cream trucks because there weren’t any in the area.”

Hopkins said she and her husband want to continue the tradition of King Kone.

“It’s one of those buildings that haven’t been torn down for a strip mall. It seems like there’s very few of them left,” she said. “When you see the building you kind of know what it is.”

King Kone is typically open from the beginning of April to the middle of October, Hopkins said.

In back of the walk up building there are several tables, a couple of rides for youngsters and a sandbox.

King Kone offers both soft serve and a variety of hard ice creams, including many daily choices. Most of the hard ice cream is purchased from Gifford’s a small company located in Maine, Hopkins said. “We don’t have enough room to make the ice cream here,” she said.

“We’re kind of famous for our soft serve. We sell a lot more of that than the hard flavors,” Hopkins said. “That is most definitely the primary reason that people come here. We do a lot of shakes, a lot of sundaes and a lot of cones.”

King Kone also offers an extensive food menu.  “People come here from all over for our lobster rolls,” Hopkins said. “I used to vacation every summer when I was a kid in Maine and I loved the lobster rolls there and we do them the same way here on a toasted, buttered New England roll.”

Another item is the “Grown Up” grilled cheese sandwich, which could include pimento cheese, which Hopkins makes herself, based on her grandmother’s recipe.

Her employees are a key to the success of King Kone, Hopkins said. “I have a wonderful staff. They’re really friendly. They’re singing all the time at work. They’re joking around with the customers.”

Hopkins said King Kone has been a lot of fun for both her and her husband and their customers. .

“It’s a very happy business,” Hopkins said. “We certainly have our headaches just like everybody else, but it makes people really happy. And I think this place in particular makes people feel like this is the reason they live in a small town.”

King Kone is located at the corner of Routes 100 and 35 in Somers.  For more information call 914-232-0571.

Neal Rentz