Sebastian Joe’s ice cream opening third location after neighborhood kids make case for it

Local ice cream and coffee shop Sebastian Joe’s has announced it is opening a third location on Nicollet Avenue in south Minneapolis, in the same building where it makes its ice cream.

The new location will be called “Sebastian Joe’s Kingfield Social,” a nod to the local neighborhood.

Customers will have local kids to thank for the new ice cream shop. Sebastian Joe’s was convinced to open the new spot after a group of neighborhood children wrote a handwritten letter to the editor with reasons to have an ice cream shop in the area which was published by neighborhood digital news organization Southwest Voices.

While the new shop doesn’t have an exact opening date yet, Sebastian Joe’s expects to be serving ice cream—and a shop-exclusive soft serve—by the second week of June.

The location will also be the first seasonal Sebastian Joe’s. The company’s other two shops—both in Minneapolis in the Lowry Hill and Linden Hills neighborhoods—are open all year.

Sebastian Joe’s Kingfield Social will serve ice cream, including some of its signature flavors, like Nicollet Avenue Pothole, Oreo and raspberry chocolate chip, along with coffee, tea, and chocolate chip cookies.

Sebastian Joe’s fans can also enjoy a special treat at the new location, a vanilla soft serve that people can choose to add in mix-ins such as real fruit, cookies, cake and other candies.

“We are thrilled to open this new location,” said Nic Groth, managing partner. “Joe’s Kingfield Social is an intentional effort to swirl tradition and ingenuity into a new flavor scoop shop. It’s a joy to have gotten such a ringing recommendation from the neighborhood kids for this Kingfield location.”

This is the first new Sebastian Joe’s location in more than three decades.

Three brothers opened the original Sebastian Joe’s storefront at Franklin Avenue and Hennepin Avenue in 1984. A few years later they opened a second location in Linden Hills. They started manufacturing their ice cream in the building where the newest shop will be located in 1993.

The new ice cream shop will be open Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 a.m.

The seasonal store will be open through at least Labor Day, Groth says.