Jerry Reilly knows ice cream.
The owner of Halo Pub on Hulfish Street, Reilly has been in the business for 28 years. And he has good news for Princeton residents who have waited in long lines for his ice cream in the past.
Reilly plans to open a second, much larger version of his popular store within the next two years.
The second Halo Pub will be located in the warehouse behind Witherspoon Street's Community Liquors. The alley runs from the liquor store to Princeton Record Exchange on Tulane Street.
If he succeeds in opening the store, which is still in the planning process, more people than ever will have access to what he unabashedly calls the finest ice cream in the world.
Reilly already owns the building and is preparing to go before the Borough's historical preservation review commission.
The site is historic for its significance as one of the few remaining buildings from what was once primarily a Jewish-owned merchant district around Nassau Street. It was originally a furniture warehouse and has been used as a publishing house, dance studio and meeting hall.
Reilly said he plans to renovate and use the original building rather than tear it down for a new start. Fans of the store will be glad to know the cow and dairy theme of decoration will follow the expansion of Halo.
"Yeah, the cows are important," Reilly said. "We have a great collection . . . enough to fill the whole place."
Thomas Sweet's, Princeton's other ice cream fixture, closed an expansion store in Palmer Square two years ago.
Johnny Abernathy, an employee at T. Sweet's, said he does not think a new Halo Pub will affect business too much. Each store has its "own following," he explained.
Reilly also said there is plenty of business to go around.
In the summer and on weekend evenings, lines at T. Sweet's often extend outside the store and around the street corner, Abernathy said. The new Halo Pub, which has not yet made it through the city's lengthy approval process, will be designed to deal with the same problem.
"In the times people are looking for ice cream we turn away more people than we serve," Reilly said. "When people see a line, they turn around."
Some planned additions to the new store include a more contemporary decorating style, a juice bar and a saucier to prepare toppings for the ice cream.
The large warehouse, with approximately eight times as much space as the current location, would also have more seating for patrons, Reilly said.
Halo Farm, the dairy backbone of the two Halo Pub locations in Princeton and nearby Hamilton, produces 45 flavors of ice cream, in addition to milk.
Reilly said the secret to good ice cream is density and a lack of artificial gums used to impart thickness.
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