A Ben & Jerry's shop that scooped cones and built Vermonster sundaes for more than 24 years at 20650 John Carroll Blvd. in University Heights is closing its doors for good. The locally operated franchise, a fixture near John Carroll University, announced the closure in a message thanking the community that grew up around it.
The announcement, signed only as Haley, thanked customers directly: “Thank you for all the years you let us serve you,” according to Cleveland 13 News. Haley added, “We will miss being a sweet part in your lives,” a line that captures just how embedded the shop had become in daily campus and neighborhood life.
Over the decades, the shop built a menu well beyond basic scoops. The station's report notes it offered ice cream, shakes, cakes and specialty sundaes along with catering for birthdays, workplace celebrations, weddings and other events. Its signature offering was the Vermonster, the oversized sundae built for sharing that became something of a local legend.
A Fixture of Campus Life and Community Days
The ice cream shop was woven into John Carroll University's rhythms for years, appearing on the school's dining and student life campus map. In October 2010, it was among the businesses supporting the university's Blue Gold Community Day, an event tied to a Blue Streaks football game against Wilmington College that brought together students, alumni, families and neighborhood residents, per the same account.
The shop also kept up with Ben & Jerry's national traditions. As recently as April 14, 2026, it joined other Northeast Ohio locations in offering complimentary scoops for the company's annual Free Cone Day, a detail Cleveland 13 News reported was first noted by Axios Cleveland. Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shops are independently owned and operated, as neo-trans.blog has reported, meaning the University Heights closure reflects a decision made at the local franchise level rather than by the broader company.
Local Reaction and a Changing Block
Former University Heights Mayor Michael Dylan Brennan publicly thanked the shop for its years as part of the city's food scene and said it would be missed, per the station's report. The closure lands as the surrounding block itself is transforming: across John Carroll Boulevard, the university's Gateway North project is bringing new retail space, a planned Trader Joe's grocery store and student housing, with that development expected to open in fall 2027.
Trader Joe's is set to anchor nearly 28,000 square feet of retail space at Gateway North, according to DiGeronimo Companies, which is also building student housing for 351 students across 96 residential units as part of the same project. Three or four additional retail spaces are currently being framed out on the side of the building facing John Carroll Boulevard, though no additional tenants have been announced, per neo-trans.blog.
Part of a Wider Ohio Scoop Shop Picture
Ben & Jerry's has continued to expand elsewhere in the region even as the University Heights location winds down. The company had planned to open its fourth Ohio Scoop Shop and second Greater Cleveland location at 1422 Euclid Ave. in Cleveland's Playhouse Square, according to Cleveland Magazine. That planned location was expected to involve roughly $300,000 in interior renovations to a 1,747-square-foot space, with two dining areas, a counter and queuing section, and bar-style window seating along Euclid Avenue in place of an outdoor patio.
Each Scoop Shop operates as its own small business under the Ben & Jerry's brand, which helps explain why one location's closure doesn't necessarily reflect the company's broader trajectory in Ohio. For University Heights, though, the loss is personal: a shop that handed out free cones every spring, catered weddings and office parties, and anchored a community football tradition is leaving a corner of John Carroll Boulevard that's about to look very different in just a couple of years.
