Road Side Margaritas

Road Side Margaritas

by Jeanné M. Tatro

On my way home from school yesterday, I was thinking of waiting until I got closer to my town to get an iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts, but the weather was so nice and I was thirsty and couldn't wait. While driving, I was thinking that I would stop at the first Convenience store and buy a Root Beer. After finally making that decision, there was an ice cream cart on the side of the road set up in the Juncos and Cavey resteraunt parking lot. I was going to drive past it, but while sitting at the red light, I noticed a sign that said Pina Coladas. Suddenly, I couldn't resist it and was curious. So I decided to stop by and get one.

While talking to the person on duty, I found out that it was Alvin Woods, from Alvin's All-Natural Ice Cream which was developed at STCC's Technology park back in late 1999, early 2000. They were able to develop it and get it into some area supermarkets like BigY and Stop and Shop. He tried to compete with some major brands and it was unsuccessful, so in 2007, they tried the Open Air Ice Cream Concept in the Springfield Area, since the market was open for that idea. 

“We just opened another location in Forest Park at the X. We now have 2 locations. We sell fresh pina coladas, tropical sorbets and all-Natural Ice Cream. Everything is made from scratch. Everything is basically organic, it just doesn't have the organic label. Hopefully we can penetrate the market and establish a home base here in Springfield and continue STCC's Entrepeneurial Institute's success rate.” said Alvin.

“Being in the service community, selling a world class product, speaks for itself. Once they taste it, they love it. The price is family-friendly, especially in this particular neighborhood. I think we have a successful model that we can grow on.” Alvin added.

Odaliz Breton has been aware of Alvin's Ice Cream for about three or four weeks now and was at the location ordering when he told me that he likes it because “it's addictive. It keeps him coming back. It's feels natural, it feels like a natural taste. It's local.”