06/15/2026
🗒️A Note From The Owners of The Pink Poodle Ice Cream Shoppe 🩷🐩
This past weekend was one of the BUSIEST weekends of the year in Colonial Beach with the 75th Annual Potomac River Festival, and we wanted to take a moment to sincerely thank everyone who stopped by to visit us.
Many people see the line outside our little shop, but few get to see what happens behind the scenes.
The photos above show the reality of our operation. The Pink Poodle is a small, family-oriented ice cream shop, and NOT a fast-food establishment. Every order is handcrafted and prepared one ticket at a time by a small team working in a very limited space.
While we don’t have to qualify this information, we will share that due to fire and safety regulations, we can only have a certain number of team members working inside our shop at one time. On most days, we operate with 3 team members, and during major holiday weekends and special events, we add a 4th whenever possible.
What many customers don’t realize is that a single ticket can sometimes contain a very large order. While that order is being prepared, the next customers are patiently waiting their turn. We never rush through orders because we want every customer to receive the same care and attention that we would want ourselves.
We were fully staffed and fully stocked for the festival weekend, and our team worked incredibly hard and as fast as they could from opening until closing each day. We have amazing team members and want to take this moment to recognize them too.
We are so grateful for the many kind words, encouragement, and understanding that we received from so many wonderful customers.
While we always welcome constructive feedback, some comments directed toward our team this weekend were also unkind and difficult to hear.
Please know that every person behind our counter is doing their very best to serve you with kindness, respect, and appreciation.
One thing that will never change at The Pink Poodle is that every customer matters. We truly mean it when we hand you your ticket order and say:
“We appreciate your business.”
Because we genuinely do.
We apologize whenever waits become longer than expected, and we are incredibly grateful for your patience and understanding. We certainly apologize to those to whom we could not meet expectations to, but did the best we could.
Again, we don’t claim to be fast food, and we certainly don’t claim to be perfect either. What we do promise is that every order is prepared with care by people who truly appreciate the community that has supported us.
Thank you for making this past weekend so special.
We look forward to seeing the customers we love so much again this coming weekend.
With sincere gratitude,
Smurf & Tina Keene
Owners, The Pink Poodle Ice Cream Shoppe 🩷🐩
