Oak Park ice cream shop goes nut-free to welcome families with allergies

An ice cream parlor is giving people who typically can’t visit one a chance to join the fun. Many people with severe nut allergies completely avoid ice cream shops because they're worried about cross-contamination that can lead to an allergic reaction.

For many people with severe nut allergies, even trace amounts of nuts left on scoops can cause a life-threatening reaction. That means a trip to an ice cream shop is often off the table. Susan Stewart owns the ice cream shop in Oak Park called Licked. She got the idea to go nut-free because she’s allergic to shellfish and knows the struggle of dealing with severe allergies.

“We started talking about nut allergies and how dangerous it can be even if we're just using the same dipping water and scoop to scoop things,” she said.

Even airborne nut particulates in the shop can cause an allergic reaction. Stewart says seeing kids' faces as they have their first ice cream shop experience, with no worries about their allergies, makes it all worth it.

One child was so surprised by the nut-free menu that they turned to their mother and asked if they really could order anything. Stewart says the answer was yes.

“It's been such a delight to see people with nut allergies, especially small children, able to come to an ice cream shop for their first time,” Stewart said.

The shop had to undergo a thorough cleaning before it could call itself nut-free and feel comfortable serving people with nut allergies. Baye Canty is an employee at the ice cream shop. She says she was involved in making sure there is no trace of nuts in the shop.

“No nuts, no peanut butter ice cream. We did a deep clean, my coworker and I, so no cross-contamination,” Canty said.

Stewart says that other local shops would struggle to remove all traces of nuts, but at Licked, the shop doesn't make the ice cream in-house and is small enough to clean easily.

“We're actually very lucky because our space is really tiny, so it makes it easy to do this transition where you take all the nuts out, before we can really call it nut-free,” she said.

If you’re craving the shop’s rocky road, you’re out of luck for now. Stewart says even though the nut-free menu is temporary, she hopes the experience is something families remember. Stewart says the shop plans to remain nut-free through the rest of the month but could extend the effort depending on community interest.