Friday morning at 11 AM there'll be a ribbon-cutting ceremony courtesy the Penticton Chamber of Commerce on the Lakeshore Drive promenade.
It's no coincidence the event will unfold directly outside the famed Penticton Peach concession stand. The ceremony is, after all, to celebrate the Peach's 2025 reopening with brand new management and a brand new menu.
Only in Penticton would such a Peachy circumstance warrant a giant ribbon, giant scissors and assorted pomp and circumstance. And that shows just what the Peach, a decades-old Penticton landmark of sorts, means to the region.
But there's something else this time around. The new Peach leaseholders – who won the right to manage the place less than a month ago – are just as iconic as the orange orb itself.
And they're "tickled" to take on the role.
"When we posted on Facebook that we got the Peach contract," said Kelsey Hoy of Okanagan Falls-based ice cream legend Tickleberry's Wednesday morning, "it was the most looked-at post we’ve ever made. Ever.
"We had just over 5100 likes, 300 shares and 400 comments. And 98% of those comments were positive. It was amazing."
Kelsey, along with dad and Tickleberry's founder and fellow co-owner Dale, met PentictonNow at the Peach – now prominently labeled "Tickleberry's at The Peach" – to tell us how it all came together and what to expect when the concession's window opens Friday after the ribbon falls.
Turns out they were signed to a comparatively long-term deal. Whereas the most recent proprietor, Calgary-based "Family Squeezed Lemonade," got a three-year term in 2022, Tickleberry's bid for five in 2025 and got 'em all.
Kelsey called the process "really transparent."
"We saw it (the invitation for proposals) on the City's Facebook page," she said. "It's not like they came to us. It felt like it was wide open to the public.
"Then there's a mandatory site visit you have to attend in order to place a bid. I think there were about ten other businesses when we were here, though it didn’t seem like there were any of the former leaseholders."
According to dad Dale, interaction with other bidders was friendly.
"We were all talking to each other," he laughed, "then we were allowed one at a time to go in and look at it (the interior). And then everyone came back out and talked again."
The big question was whether getting involved at the Peach was a smart idea for a business that already seems so omnipresent. An OK Falls HQ, downtown Penticton branch (just blocks from The Peach) and the recently re-won Skaha Lake concessions – it’s a lot.
"Our initial thought was not to do it," said Kelsey. "We’d made a deal with ourselves to not start any new projects for five years.
"But the more we talked about it as a family – we gather lots for family lunches and dinners with aunts and uncles too – we said we should try.
"And we’re glad we did."
Dale explained further.
"You know, for years and years we took ice cream wagons and traveled across Canada. We did events like the Winnipeg Folk Fest.
"And this is a bit like an ice cream wagon. And we decided we wanted to do that again."
As for the menu, Tickleberry's at the Peach won't steer too far from the stuff that's made them so successful everywhere else.
Only less of it. The Peach is, after all, anything but roomy.
"We'll have our homemade, hand-cut peach ice cream bars," said Dale. "You dip them in chocolate then you can have nuts or sprinkles on them.
"And we have our frozen bananas (also with chocolate and nuts or sprinkles), which have been really popular for us so far."
The hard ice cream lineup will begin with eight flavours and quite likely bump to a max of 16 in the days and weeks ahead.
At least 25% of those flavours (like "Peachy Peach") will be produced exclusively at Tickleberry's super-secret ice cream-making lair in OK Falls, while the rest will come from top-grade suppliers and only after passing the long-standing Hoy family taste test.
"Our suppliers include Island Farms, Chapman – which does a lot of our vegan and no-sugar-added ice creams – and a new dairy that's come into town, Kawartha Dairy out of Ontario."
Refreshments will range from home-made lemonade to home-made peach green tea, coffee-on-the-rocks, and soft drinks.
The Hoys feel confident Tickleberry's, which they say is the largest seller of hand-scooped ice cream in western Canada, has what it takes.
"We're known for big scoops," said Kelsey. "We're known for friendly service. We're known for consistency. It's our brand."
And they got some good wishes from the most recent leaseholder. A leaseholder that was treated harshly in the virtual world even before they'd opened.
When Family Squeezed Lemonade won the 2022 bidding process for The Peach, they – and the City too – were harshly critiqued in regional social media.
A Peach proprietor from Alberta (even though they had multiple Okanagan connections)? It was too much for some. Indeed, a change.org petition would gather thousands of signatures.
Didn’t help that the prior management team, Penticton couple and local business owners Diana and Dustin Stirling, well-liked in the community for numerous other dealings, had, through smart social media campaigns and brilliant marketing, essentially given The Peach a life of its own.
But the furor died down over time and today, Family Squeezed Lemonade's co-owner Jennifer Andrew maintains their three years at The Peach was "a great time for us."
"I can unequivocally say our time at The Peach was great," she said. "Of course there was online chatter about it at the start. But we did what we set out to do. We employed people locally as much as we could and we loved serving the people of Penticton and the tourists."
"We didn’t re-apply this year for family reasons, but we want to re-apply when the contract is next up. In the meantime we wish Tickleberry's the very best. The Peach is a fun place to be."
Beginning Friday, May 22, Tickleberry's at The Peach will open at 11 AM and close at 6 PM every Friday, Saturday and Sunday to June 14, when it’ll open seven days a week though summer.
Beginning in July, hours will expand to 10 AM to 10 PM. Days and hours will be weather-dependent in September.
For more info on Tickleberry's, head here
