Reynolds Ice Cream and Shakers – On Folkestone Harbour Arm

Graham Reynolds is taking on Folkestone Harbour Arm.  You may have already tried one of his famous Reynolds Ice Creams.  Now, bringing his flair to milkshakes and cocktails, you’ll be able to play adventure golf and take on a treat at Shakers. Graham and daughter Lily introduced Folkelife to their new ideas.

Graham: “We have brought one of our ice cream trucks to the Harbour Arm this year as we thought it made perfect sense. We’re not your bog-standard ice cream.  Reynolds is something a bit different, and a bit special, so we thought we’d fit right in.

“I grew up in Folkestone, went to school here, well, I sat in the classes!  Anyway, we have a very loyal customer base, people who are happy to come and find us when its raining so they don’t have to queue when its sunny.  

“Then the opportunity came up to run a food offering from the Adventure Golf site, and that means we can give our signature ice cream touch to cocktails and milkshakes too!”

a story with humble beginnings

Lily: “Dad started with the van just as a side hustle really, but when Covid hit, he started to build on the basic 99.  He was a lorry driver before, but had this idea about making ice cream boxes and delivering them to people.  With the boxes, you could leave them on doorsteps, and didn’t have to have any contact, because we weren’t allowed to at that point.

“We took a photo and put in on our socials and things went mental! Then once life got easier, we could turn to using cones and build the ice creams as we do now.  We still have ‘boxes’, if you think of the Easter Eggs as containers for the ice cream and so on.  It’s a creative look at a box!”

Graham: “People come for the experience, and that’s what I want to give, right down to the last bite of that cone.  You’ll find that all of our ice cream cones have sauce and crunchy biscuits, or, chocolate nibs in the bottom, and then I build the ice cream up from there.

“Now, we have been putting that thought to cocktails and milkshakes we can serve from the hut at the Golf.  And they are looking exciting!”

do you like piña colada?

Graham: “Our cocktails and milkshakes are exclusive to the Harbour Arm.  We’ve been creating them, and giving them our ice cream twist.  So, if you like piña colada, we’re serving it in half a pineapple!  You’ll get actual pineapple in there too, and a twister ice cream lolly as well as rum and coconut cream and all the rest.  It’s a sharer cocktail, but I am not sure many will share it!

Lily: “We’ve been playing with a Pornstar Martini too, which has an ice cream float on it.  That one tastes good.  But, if you don’t want an alcoholic drink, there will be milkshakes too which will be fully loaded like our ice creams.

“They are very visual; we find that people, as soon as they get one of our ice creams, take a photo of it, so that will be the same with the milkshakes and cocktails.”

the lighthouse and reynolds

Graham: “We have wafers on our products that have our logo and a little ice cream on.  I’ve made some for Folkestone which have the Lighthouse on them, just so that you know where people have bought their ice cream or milkshake.  

“We’ll also have burgers and chips at Shakers, by the Adventure Golf.  I’ve been practising with the branding iron today, so they’ll say Shakers on top!  I’ve been creating one which looks like a bird, with chips coming out of the top like a crown. I just love coming up with new ideas for visually great, but also great tasting foods.

“The ice cream van has limited space, so only one person can serve from there.  Shakers has a lot more space, and we’re thinking, if there are two venues on the Harbour Arm where you can get an ice cream, or more, then hopefully the queues won’t be too long..!”