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Here’s the Scoop: Ashley’s Returns
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Business New Haven
9/16/2002
By: BNH
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NEW HAVEN - After a three-year absence, Ashley's Ice Cream is back at 280 York Street between Broadway and Wall Street. The parlor's former 278 York Street location (next door to the new site) closed up shop in March 1999 amid financial meltdown.
The parlor's landlord, Yale University, in recent years has sought to recruit high-end tenants to its Broadway, York Street and Whitney Avenue buildings.
The new parlor will be run by Joe Ametrano of Guilford, who owns and operates the other surviving Ashley's locations at 2100 Dixwell Avenue in Hamden, 1018 Main Street in Branford, and 942 Boston Post Road in Guilford.
Leases held by tenants such as J. Crew and Urban Outfitters on Broadway, or Koffee Too? at the former home of Ashley's on York Street, require the businesses stay open as late as 9 p.m. or midnight, to ensure the neighborhood remains inviting well after dark.
Ashley's earned its as the city's first-ever “gourmet” ice cream parlor, opening in 1978. The Ashley's chain soon grew to five shops in New Haven, Hamden, Guilford, and West Haven.
In 1983, the Karlin family sold out to Ametrano, who bought the York Street, Hamden and Guilford stores, while Frank Filardo ran the College Street and West Haven sites.
Other stores opened in Fairfield and then in Branford. In 1995, Ametrano sold control of the chain to Bob Weissblatt of Fairfield. Soon thereafter Ashley's fortunes went south. All of the stores, except for the Guilford and Branford locations, closed in 1999, the Hamden site just days after York Street's. But within weeks Ametrano bought back control of the chain, reopening the Hamden parlor in May 1999, pledging the return of “the same old Ashley's.”
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