BJ's True Old Fashioned Batch Ice Cream open in Sisters

A long-time Florence, Oregon, family ice cream business has opened up a new location in downtown Sisters.

BJ's True Old Fashioned Batch Ice Cream has it's doors open in Barclay Square on Cascade Avenue, serving old fashioned batch-made ice cream, home-made fudge and Sisters Coffee Company coffee.

"We've always liked the old store," says Brian Cole, referring to the former Rainbow Connection, "and when it came available, we jumped at the chance."

In late February, Brian's son, Keith was driving through Sisters on his way home to Florence and noticed the former Barclay Square property was available. He put together a plan to open a Sisters-location BJ's in a month. The only question was "who is going to run it?"

Enter Crystine Cole, granddaughter of Brian and Jodie, daughter of Keith. The 2008 graduate of Siuslaw High School has already moved to Sisters to manage and run the store.

"It takes a family to be successful at a business anymore," says Brian. Crystine has been working in the family ice cream stores since she was 14.

BJ's started in 1978 in Florence when Brian and Jodie Cole (the "B" & "J" in BJ's) were looking for a place to open an ice cream business and raise their children. Florence was their choice. Over the last 32 years the business expanded to two ice cream stores, with a bakery and an ice cream plant. It is truly a family business, with Brian's grandfather learning to make ice cream in Slater, Iowa way back in 1917.

That makes five generations of Coles who know ice cream.

Brian, an occasional fly-fisherman, has been familiar with Sisters for a long time because of his fishing on the Metolius River and past visits to Lake Creek Lodge. They enjoyed the area so much, his son Keith was married in Camp Sherman.

"Florence is to the coast what Sisters is to the mountains," he said, noting similarities between the two towns. He enjoys Sisters from a planning perspective as well, having chaired the Lane County Planning Commission. He explains, "Sisters knows what it wants to be and has achieved that (using planning) to make prosperity."

BJ's is proud of its old-fashioned ice cream, made with no chemicals and no colors. "The vanilla is white, the licorice is white, and the Bing cherry is pink from the juices. The chemicals in store-bought ice cream are there so it doesn't turn to liquid in an hour," Brian said. "Ice cream is made to be eaten."

While he realizes that BJ's can't always compete with store ice cream that can be purchased on special, he has the experience to know people will "every now and again want perfection."

Brian notes, "Baskin Robbins used to do what we do (make old fashioned ice cream), until they sold out to a corporate entity."

BJ's makes 90 flavors of ice cream, with 32 in the freezers at any one time. Five of the flavors are made with "Oregon only" ingredients. A flavor called Oregon Trail is their No. 1 seller. The cookie dough ice cream has handmade cookie dough folded into it. In the summer, it is one of their best sellers. Among other things, you can also get chocolate-dipper cheesecake on a stick.