Fabled Ice Cream is coming to Hollin Hall

My routine lately is simple:

Get a fountain Diet Coke from 7-Eleven.

Park in front of 7940 Fort Hunt Road.

Stare at the storefront for over an hour.

What am I doing, exactly?

Mostly, I watch the comings and goings of the shopping center. The man in the polo shirt on his way to get a haircut at the barber shop. The woman in exercise clothes headed to Pilates. The cars slotting into parking spaces while their drivers run errands at the hardware store, the dry cleaner, the butcher.

It’s a busy little corner, which makes my heart sing.

And while I sit there, I start filling in the picture: 

A summer evening. The glow of string lights. People lingering in the courtyard. A kid with an ice cream cone, legs dangling off the concrete bench. Someone walking home with a pint tucked under their arm.

Right now, it’s still just an empty storefront I’m staring at from my car. But I can see it.

Is this what manifesting looks like?

Because by next year, 7940 Fort Hunt Road will be home to Fabled Ice Cream, a small-batch ice cream shop inspired by stories and made right here in our community.

For me, opening Fabled in this particular neighborhood feels especially meaningful. I grew up nearby. I went to High’s Market after swimming at the pool with my family. I remember ordering rainbow sherbet and watching the scoop swoop across its multicolored surface. I remember the crisp cake cone and the little white napkin wrapped around the bottom. I remember the ding of the doorbell as we left.

Then we’d pile into the car, windows down, and my parents would drive us back to our house in Waynewood.

I couldn’t have been more than six. And yet I still remember it. That’s the thing about ice cream. Yes, it’s milk, cream and sugar. But I also think of it as a bookmark of sorts. A way of marking a particular page in your life.

Maybe it was the cone you ate after Little League practice. The sundae your family always got on vacation. The place you rode your bike to with friends. The milkshake after a high school football game. 

The ice cream itself disappears pretty quickly. Somehow, the memory doesn’t.

That kind of memory-making is what I’m going for with Fabled Ice Cream.

I want families to gather here after swim team practice. I want someone to suggest Fabled when there’s a graduation to celebrate, or a good report card, or simply a Tuesday night when everyone could use a treat.

I want Fabled ice cream cakes to mark birthdays and anniversaries. I want kids to walk or bike here and pay with crumpled dollar bills and loose change from their allowances. I want neighbors to run into one another and pause to chat while waiting for their cones. I hope people will linger outside on warm summer nights.

More than anything, I want Fabled Ice Cream to become a real part of this neighborhood. 

Because the places that become important to us aren't always the grand ones. Sometimes they're the little places we visit over and over again until, without realizing it, they've become part of the story of our lives.

For now, there are still architectural plans to finalize, permits to secure, equipment to order and a whole ice cream shop to build.

So I’ll probably keep getting my Diet Coke and parking outside 7940 Fort Hunt Road.

I’ll keep watching.

And imagining.

Soon enough, I hope I won't be looking at an empty storefront anymore. I'll be looking through the windows of Fabled Ice Cream at a room full of neighbors making memories of their own.

One scoop at a time.

SEE ALSO: Beginning Again