It’s the 105th anniversary of the banana split and, for the first time in five years, Old Town Lansing’s beloved ice cream shop is reopening.
Arctic Corner, which is the former Tate’s Freeze, opened a few days ago and is now ready to start dolling out banana splits and soft serve ice cream.
Like Tate’s, Arctic Corner will sell chocolate and vanilla and eventually add cherry and lemon soft serve ice cream. The new owners have also added nachos, sandwiches and hotdogs to the menu.
Arctic Corner is a family business. It’s owned by Sharon Lycos. Her daughter, Alissa Lycos is heavily involved in the operations and Mark Adkins, a family friend, is the manager. When Alissa was growing up, Sharon frequently took her to Tate’s in the summer.
“When they shut down, it left a real void,” Sharon Lycos says. “There was no soft serve. There’s so much going on down here—it’s a quaint area of town. It’s very diverse.”
Lycos nearly gutted the building to prep it for new customers. She plans to follow the Tate model and keep the business open during the warm months (roughly March through September) and close it during the cold ones.
Arctic Corner is located at 314 E. Grand River Ave. in Old Town.
Source: Sharon Lycos, Arctic Circle
Ivy Hughes is the managing editor of Capital Gains and can be reached here.
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