A hot-pink ice cream chain famous for chandeliers, moving toy trains and bathroom doors that fog up when locked is headed to St. Armands Circle. Sloan's Ice Cream plans to open its first Florida West Coast location at 380B St. Armands Circle in the first quarter of 2027, dropping a South Florida institution into one of Sarasota's most saturated dessert strips.
The chain got its start in 1999 in Palm Beach County, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, and has since expanded across the country while keeping its base in West Palm Beach. Founder Sloan Kamenstein, a chef trained at London's Le Cordon Bleu and in French kitchens, built the concept around childhood summer memories of Martha's Vineyard, according to Entrepreneur Middle East. Today the brand has locations in Boca Raton and Las Vegas, and has cycled through several West Palm Beach addresses over the years, including CityPlace, Clematis Street and Rosemary Square, per the Herald-Tribune's reporting.
A Sweet Shop Built for Spectacle
Sloan's stores are designed to be theatrical rather than understated. Kamenstein painted the interiors hot pink, his mother's favorite color, and filled the spaces with crystal chandeliers, moving toy trains, bulk candy walls and plush toys, according to a 2015 account from CHEZ GRIGWARE. One signature novelty is the store restrooms' so-called magic glass doors, which stay completely clear when the room is empty but turn opaque the instant the lock engages — a feature that landed the Palm Beach store a top-10 finalist spot in Cintas's America's Best Restroom contest in 2013, per CBS 12 News.
The menu leans into the same over-the-top approach. Per the Herald-Tribune, Sloan's offers hand-made ice cream in small cups alongside chocolate and candy treats, a Sandcastle Sundae, and a Flower Child dessert. The chain's showpiece item, Tracy's Kitchen Sink, lets customers choose their own flavors and piles in 18 large scoops of ice cream along with baked goods and other toppings.
National Buzz and a Franchise Business Model
Sloan's has built its reputation partly on media exposure, with appearances on Disney+'s The World According to Jeff Goldblum and E!'s Keeping Up with the Kardashians, plus a spot on USA Today's list of Top 10 Ice Cream Parlors in America, according to BizBuySell. The company launched a franchising program in 2012 offering both Traditional and Express store formats, and BizBuySell reports the franchise system posted an average unit volume topping $1.15 million in 2023. The brand has also gone international, opening its first overseas location at The Promenade mall in Kuwait in spring 2016 and later signing multi-unit development deals in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to Entrepreneur Middle East.
Landing in an Already Crowded Dessert Corner
Whatever Sloan's brings to St. Armands Circle, it will be competing for attention in a corner of Sarasota already thick with sweet shops. The St. Armands Circle Association lists Kilwins, Ben & Jerry's, Settimi's Gelato, Big Olaf Ice Cream and River Street Sweets as existing ice cream and confection vendors on the Circle. Kilwins in particular has deep roots there, having opened in 1985 as the company's first Florida storefront; the shop underwent a full interior rebuild and held a grand reopening in September 2025 after being closed for nearly a year due to damage from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, according to Your Observer.
The Circle's retail mix has also been shifting more broadly. Hoodline previously reported on Speaks Clam Bar's exit after nearly eight years on St. Armands, as operators there adjust to changing tourism traffic and rising operating costs. Sloan's arrival adds a new, higher-profile entrant to that same evolving commercial landscape.
For Sloan's, the Sarasota shop represents new geographic territory. The chain has built a concentrated cluster of stores across South Florida, including Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Doral and Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, plus outposts in Las Vegas, but the St. Armands Circle site marks its first footprint on Florida's West Coast. Exact construction and permitting details for the 380B space have not been disclosed, and the opening remains slated broadly for the first quarter of 2027.
