LOGAN SQUARE — Tony Zarcone was in his early 20s when he left his job as a butcher to buy a rundown ice cream shack in the neighborhood where he grew up.
The lifelong Logan Square resident said he felt a calling to keep The Freeze, 2815 W. Armitage Ave., going as he remembered it. Summers as a kid were spent unwrapping 50-cent hot dogs and devouring soft-serve cones with friends on the shack’s stoop, he said.
The 73-year-old business — which has always operated with a single cash register, handwritten orders and just a few “workhorse” ice cream machines — was the neighborhood’s “time capsule,” Zarcone said.
“I was meant to keep serving ice cream to my community. My last name even ends in the word,” Zarcone said. “We’re lucky to have had this for the time we had.”
After more than 6 months on the market, The Freeze was sold last month, Zarcone said.
Zarcone, now 59, said he sought a buyer that would keep the beloved ice cream spot open — but the deal was ultimately closed with no promises.
“I don’t have a crystal ball, but it would behoove the new owners to have some type of ice cream element, if they don’t want to be the Cubs’ Bartman of the neighborhood,” Zarcone said. “I’d love to see ice cream come out of this place again … but I don’t know.”
Zarcone didn’t reveal who bought the business, but legal paperwork for the property was recently filed by real estate firm Northco LLC, which did not return requests for comment.
Keeping the seasonal business afloat has been a challenge, especially as the costs of doing business in the neighborhood have risen, Zarcone said.
The ice cream seller became a city firefighter, swapping shifts at his Lincoln Park station for summers at The Freeze.
“From the minute I got to the shop, it was always laughs and jokes,” Zarcone said. “There was something magical about the place.”
Zarcone, retired from the fire department since 2018, now plans to “move down to the country” to be near his adult daughter and begin making up for lost time, he said.
“I missed a lot of soccer games, a lot of my daughter’s childhood. Any restaurant owner knows the sacrifices,” Zarcone said. “I have no regrets, no sadness about the business, just excitement to be closer to her.”
Workers at The Freeze never wrote down a recipe, even as the menu swelled each summer. Zarcone, the de-facto cook at his firehouse, brought simple, low-cost “fireman food” back with him to The Freeze: beef and sausage combos, chili dogs, double cheeseburgers and grilled chicken sandwiches.
Firefighters at engines across the city stopped by for dipped cones and butterscotch shakes. Couples took pictures outside The Freeze on their wedding days, Zarcone said.
The shack survived as the neighborhood changed and restaurants down Armitage Avenue came and went.
“I’m proud to have served the city of Chicago, proud to have been a firefighter, proud to have served my community the best soft serve in the city,” Zarcone said. “And I want to thank my parents and also the customers, whom we loved like family.”
Zarcone recently emptied out The Freeze and plans to take his machines with him. He wonders if he’ll get the urge to open a little shop on the side of a country road, serving up The Freeze’s signature soft serve, he said.
“If I was younger, I would have maybe kept the place here,” Zarcone said. “I’ve aged out.”
The neighborhood ice cream man’s work in Chicago is now done, he said with a smile.
“When I first bought the place, I gave a radio interview saying I predicted the neighborhood would once again have baby buggies rolling down the street, like when I grew up,” Zarcone said. “Isn’t that what you see here now?”
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