The ’Scream dishes out soft serve under new owners

“I always said if I could just go and do the ice cream shop for the rest of my life that’s all I want to do.”

Those are the words of Alyssa Rysavy, new owner of The ’Scream along with her husband Albert.

When the ice cream shop’s previous owners, Gale and Nancy Crandall, decided to sell, Alyssa and Albert were at the top of their list. Alyssa had worked at The ’Scream for four years, and Alyssa’s father works with Gale at Northern Natural Gas.

The decision to buy the shop was not automatic, but it quickly became clear that buying was the right decision for the young couple.

“When we got contacted in September, we had just moved into a new townhome in Sartell…I was like ‘No, we’re not gonna move back to our hometown. He [Albert] is not gonna be down for owning a business,’” Alyssa said.

It turns out that Albert was excited for the opportunity. “We only talked about it, honestly, for a week or two and then came to the decision that we’d love to do it,” he said.

Less than a year later the pair is doing well in their new role as owners. Alyssa has experience at The ’Scream, working there from 2015 to 2019, but other than that, the couple had minimal experience in how to run a small business.

“Going from having worked in the shop, just making treats, talking to customers… I didn’t know where anything was coming from or how we had everything stocked,” Alyssa said. “It was like, oh, I have to do that now.’

“Running the back end of the shop was definitely a big learning curve for us. It was super helpful that the previous owners stuck around and they were very, very willing to help us through the transition,” Albert added.

Regardless of the learning curve on the back end of the shop, the front end of the shop is pumping out plenty of tasty treats.

“Alyssa makes the cookie dough homemade every day, and she makes the waffle cones homemade daily. Those are two of our big popular things. They’re really, really good,” Albert said.

Affogato is the couple's favorite item on the menu right now. Traditionally, Affogato is an Italian coffee dessert that includes a small scoop of ice cream and an espresso shot poured over the top.

“We have our own twist on it that Gale and Nancy had come up with, which is our soft serve ice cream and cold brew poured over the top,” Alyssa said. “What upgraded it is we partnered with Straight River Coffee, and we found [a flavor] that is so good.”

The ’Scream is located at 301 S. Oak Ave. in Owatonna and is open from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. every day.

“We’re going to try to be open through the end of October when the snowflakes start to fly…but we’re looking forward to the rest of the summer season, which should be great,” Alyssa said.