Ice cream store celebrates 72nd birthday

What better way to celebrate a birthday than with cake and ice cream? What about with birthday cake ice cream? That's one of the most popular flavors at Carvel Ice Cream in Folsom, which celebrated the company's 72nd birthday Saturday with 15-cent ice cream cones all day.Only 105 days old in Folsom, Carvel has been around since Memorial Day weekend 1934. Founded on the East Coast, the Iron Point Road shop is the first in the Central Valley.What's unique about Carvel, explained Brett Weshner, owner of the Folsom store, is all of the store's products are made onsite. "Nothing is shipped frozen here," he said. "We make it all fresh at the store in small batches." There are more than 100 different Carvel recipes, but Weshner said he only features a handful at a time and is always rotating in new flavors, including twists on the old favorites.In addition to strawberry, chocolate and vanilla, Carvel offers peanut butter chocolate, strawberry shortcake and triple chocolate brownie. And, of course, there are always hot fudge sundaes and birthday cakes, he said. Although he's a self-proclaimed ice cream enthusiast, Weshner admits he kind of fell into the business. Weshner's background in actually in government (he once worked for Gov. Pete Wilson) and technology (he helped start a technology company in Folsom four years ago). But he said he's always had an entrepreneurial spirit and decided to go into business for himself. "I decided it was time to go out and have fun," he said. He chose the right field. "Carvel has one type of customer. They're here to be happy," Weshner said. "There are customers who are either in a great mood and having a great day who want to stay that way and come in for some ice cream, or they're rewarding themselves at the end of a hard day with a nice hot fudge sundae. They want to come in here to be happy and we make sure they stay happy. "It's fun," he said. "It's a lot of hard work, but it's really fun." His three kids, who range from 10 to 2 years old, are just as excited, Dad said. "They definitely have a lot of fun here," he said.