In the early 1980's Suzanne Erskine Fretwell spent much time planning, incubating, and hatching a fledgling seasonal ice cream business at her family's summer home in Wells, Maine. 

 

She opened the "Scoop Deck" in July 1983, managed & operated it through Labor Day, and came back for a 2nd full season in 1984.  Due to family commitments & the obligations of her other career, she chose to transition ownership of the business to her brother, Doug Erskine.

 

Doug’s 1st season ended on Columbus Day 1985 with 3 employees, many new customers, and a doubling of sales volume.  Since that initial 1985 season the learning curve and long hours continued with each summer and the staff of "super scoopers" slowly increased to 20.   

  

In 2006, Doug's son Scott returned to help operate the business.  He had worked at the shop during his high school and college years and was eager to return after having been away for quite some time.  The management team grew again in 2012 to include Scott's wife, Emily. Meanwhile in 2012, Marina, Scott's niece, started working at the shop as a scooper. Years later, Marina would go on to enter a management position alongside Scott and Emily. 

 

The 2013 season began with a major expansion of parking and an addition to the barn which increased our customer service area by over 60%. 

 

After more than 30 fast paced years, and with an improved facility in place to allow future growth of the business, Doug transitioned the business to Scott & his wife Emily in January of 2014.

 

The Scoop Deck has become one of the busiest and most popular ice cream destinations in the state of Maine!  We celebrated our 35th anniversary season in 2017! We finally gave the exterior of the barn a face lift of fresh paint & moved waffle production into the large unused house on the property due to space demands for both baking and storage.  

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2020 was a struggle with all the Covid pandemic had to offer, but our strong following and local customers kept us afloat. We packed loads of pints & quarts for "curbside pickup", offered payment by credit card for the first time in our history and were so relieved to close up for the season with all staff members having stayed healthy throughout the season.

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We celebrating our 40th season in 2022~ that's correct, 1983 was year one --- and 2022 makes 40 seasons scoopin' up fun!

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