Ice Cream Eating the Newest Pastime in Hollywood

The popular ice cream parlor, “Bruster’s,” made its debut in St. Mary’s County on June 9 and the store has been scooping up crowds of ice cream lovers ever since.

Located on Mervell Dean Road in Hollywood, this ice cream kiosk had the best grand opening of all the 260+ stores in the chain, according to Ray Bednarcik, store owner.

The ranking goes according to overall sales and customers during the opening days of the store and “we beat the nearest store next to us by 50 percent,” Bednarcik told The Bay Net.

“The store opened with overwhelming success,” Bednarcik said. “The county has accepted us as an ice cream store and has become a very social environment.”

The county certainly has accepted Bruster’s, judging by the massive crowds outside of the store each evening. It has become a hot spot for people of all ages to enjoy, making ice cream eating a new social activity.

The store is right in between Rt. 235 and Mervell Dean Rd., and space is limited, yet locals still flock toward Bruster’s to get there favorite milkshake or waffle cone. Due to the massive amount of people, cars are not only parked in the lot, but also on both shoulders of Mervell Dean Rd. The parking lot only holds about 23 vehicles.

There are a number of residential homes bordering this road very close to the ice cream store. Even so, Bruster’s has not received one complaint about the business.

Bednarcik franchised the store because he wanted to run his own business and always liked working with kids; most of the employees working there are in their late teenage years.

“I wanted to own my own business that was positive for the county and would fill a market that wasn’t there,” he said.

Now a fully functional ice cream shop in St. Mary’s county, the store is opened seven days a week from 11 am until 10 pm. Many nights the customers are still in line for their favorite treat even when closing time comes around. But according to Bednarcik, if customers are still craving ice cream the store will stay open.

“It has become so social that it is hard to turn the lights off,” he said.