Recommended in Portsmouth: Ice Cream Emporium celebrates 10 years on South Parade Pier
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The Ice Cream Emporium, on South Parade Pier in Southsea, is well-known for its giant Mr Whippy cones and has experienced a spike in trade during the recent heatwave. Customers have flocked to the seafront parlour over the past decade – and owner Trevor Bratty says tourism has only increased during his time trading in the area.
Trevor said: ‘In 2013 we created Ice Cream Emporium but we had been here a couple of years before that in the seasonal shop next door. When we took it over from the old owners, the main thing they said is “make sure your keep your large whippy ice creams” because that’s what we’re known for. We did that, but we also made sure we created Southsea’s best ice cream – the pink and white ice cream we’re known for.
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‘It’s all in the mix. If you get an ice cream from an ice cream van, they are putting a lot of air into the mixture. With our machines – they cost in excess of £30,000 each – we’ve got two so we can do lots of different flavours.
‘We have vanilla, strawberry and chocolate or we can do our famous pink and white strawberry and vanilla. As far I know, nobody else in Southsea uses the actual mix that we use – I can’t say what it is because it’s a secret.’
The emporium also offers other desserts such as waffles and milkshakes alongside a number of sweets and traditional seaside products like Portsmouth and Southsea rock. Amongst the more unusual is seagull poo – a chocolate-coated white confection which ‘all the kids go for.’
The entrepreneur added: ‘This year got off to a really slow start to begin with because we had all that rain and wind. Now that the nice weather is here, its really going ten to the dozen. We’re open all year round so even when you get the rain and the wind, we’re fortunate that we’re under the canopy of South Parade Pier. We do have a seating area, which we added in 2016 when the new owners of the pier took it over.’