Our long Jeni's-less nightmare is over. The ice cream shop, which has locations in Wicker Park and on Southport, will be reopening next Friday, May 22, at 7pm.
After finding a listeria contamination, Jeni's closed all its stores, recalled products and ceased production on April 23. It announced today that production has resumed, and that includes a brand new summer flavor, Sun-Popped Corn, made with corn from Bjorn Quorn.
While not having access to Jeni's has been a blow, the Columbus-based company has handled it really well, and kept people informed about everything that was happening on its blog. It had to destroy 535,000 pounds of ice cream, but took the majority to an anaerobic digester to convert it into electricity and soil fertilizer.
The season's lot of Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk, one of Jeni's iconic flavors, was included in the ice cream that was destroyed, so the flavor won't be available until strawberries are growing once again in Ohio. But you can expect to find other favorites, including Salty Caramel and Root Beer, when the stores re-open.