Crispy Cones has locked in an opening date for its first Loudoun County storefront: Friday, September 18. The dessert chain, known for wrapping fresh dough around a rotating spit and stuffing the caramelized results with soft serve, is setting up shop in the Bram Quarter development in Ashburn's Brambleton community.
News of the specific date comes via The Burn, which first reported back in January that Crispy Cones was eyeing a Loudoun County sweet shop. The Brambleton store will be the brand's second Virginia location, following an existing spot in the Richmond area, according to the outlet's reporting. Bram Quarter itself sits near the intersection of Loudoun County Parkway and Evergreen Mills Road, placing the new dessert stop within easy reach of the broader Brambleton master-planned community, per Miller Walker Real Estate.
The local franchise operation behind the Brambleton store is Chill Treats, which signed the Bram Quarter lease and has floated plans to open as many as three more Northern Virginia locations in the coming years, as reported by Patch. That expansion appetite tracks with Crispy Cones' broader trajectory: the brand now counts more than 40 locations open or in active development across 20 states, according to the company's own website, as cited by the same Burn report.
From a Rexburg Tent to a National Franchise
Crispy Cones traces its roots to 2018, when founder Jeremy Carlson first started serving the treat out of a canopy tent in Rexburg, Idaho. Carlson conceived the idea after encountering spit-roasted chimney cakes while serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Czech Republic, according to Food Republic. He later married co-founder Kaitlyn Carlson, and the pair built the concept into a brick-and-mortar franchise model.
That growth accelerated dramatically after the couple appeared on Season 14 of ABC's Shark Tank in March 2023. Barbara Corcoran offered the Carlsons $200,000 for 20% equity in the business, a deal that became the catalyst for the brand's national franchising push. The couple later returned for a February 2024 update segment spotlighting that expansion, per reporting from EIN Presswire.
Grilled Dough Meets an Ashburn Real Estate Boom
The Crispy Cones menu includes curated cones, build-your-own options, and rotating weekly specials, built around a pastry base with genuine Central European roots. The cake cones are widely described as an Eastern European treat sometimes called chimney cakes, deriving from the traditional trdelník or kürtőskalács tradition — a pastry whose Slovak regional version, Skalický trdelník, even holds European Union Protected Geographical Indication status.
Bram Quarter has become something of a magnet for debut food concepts this year, including Another Broken Egg Cafe, which opened its first Northern Virginia store at the same center in June. That pattern reflects Ashburn's shifting status in the regional dining scene, according to Northern Virginia real estate coverage — the corridor's median household income of $181,765, per U.S. Census Bureau estimates cited by USAFacts, has helped turn a once late-stage expansion market into a preferred launchpad for brands making their regional debut.
What to Expect on Opening Day
When the doors open on September 18, Brambleton customers will find the same format that has drawn crowds at Crispy Cones' other locations: fresh dough wrapped around cylindrical molds, rotisserie-grilled until caramelized, rolled in cinnamon sugar, smeared with spreads like Nutella or cookie butter, and finished with a swirl of gourmet soft serve. Hoodline has previously covered the brand's spread into other markets, including a Clearwater strip mall opening and a Vancouver, Washington debut, part of a national rollout that also reached Denver's Federal Boulevard corridor over the summer.
