The Freez opens for the season Friday, March 1, with a new owner, Lorraine Moore.

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

When The Freez opens for the season at 2 p.m. Friday, the ice cream treats will be the same. Familiar faces will be at the windows, ready to take the year’s first orders. Only one thing will be entirely new: the owner.
Lorraine Moore has purchased the popular neighborhood ice cream shop at 410 19th St. S. from “the Jesses,” partners Jess Malvin and Jessica Verdi. She plans to maintain the menu and friendly service that has made the shop a local landmark since its founding half a century ago. The two Jesses purchased the business from the late Duane Elofson in 2019, who had operated it for 32 years.
Moore spent 32 years with the Shooting Star in her home town, Mahnomen, before following her dream of owning her own business. She worked with blackjack, accounting and marketing for the casino while pursuing a series of second jobs in the restaurant and hospitality business. She has also been a Pampered Chef associate and holds a real estate license.
She says finding The Freez for sale was meant to be. “It’s been a whirlwind,” she says. “I was driving back from Menard’s to my home in north Moorhead when I noticed the ‘for sale’ sign.” That was Feb. 2. By the middle of the month, she was turning on the propane to warm up the building and get familiar with the business. On Wednesday, she and the former owners signed the papers to make the business her own.
Since then, she’s been learning the ins and outs of the ice cream business. Unlike Malvin and Verdi, who each worked there for some 20 years before taking it over, Moore has no prior experience with crafting frozen treats. “I’ve gotten a feel for dipping ice cream/cookie sandwiches and frozen cheesecake bars in chocolate, and I’ve made some shakes,” she reports, “but I still haven’t mastered the ice cream machine for making cones. There’s an art to it.”
But she won’t be on her own. The crew who have worked for the Jesses – some for the past half-dozen seasons – will be on hand to insure the quality is everything it has been in the past. “I don’t have to know everything right away. The staff already know how to do everything,” she points out. “It’s very comforting.
While maintaining what customers already expect is first on her list, Moore says she has some ideas of her own that may be added as the season progresses, perhaps as daily or weekly specials. She also plans a month-long promotion in May.
Until school concludes for the summer, The Freez will be open from 2 to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, starting March 1. and from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays, and noon to 9 Sundays.