Rookie’s Ice Cream Cookie Shop Expands From a Trailer to a Building

One of Lynchburg’s beloved late-night ice cream stops has a brand new home. Rookie’s, the iconic ice cream cookie truck, relocated to a brick-and-mortar location not even 150 feet from where the food truck had been parked for three years. 

Rookie’s owner Jordan Nickerson reflected on the June day back in 2017 when he first saw the building Rookie’s now uses as its base of operations.

“I remember the moment that I pulled up in front of that building and I was like, ‘I want to be in this building. I want to see Rookie’s in this building really badly,’” Nickerson said. 

While the food truck encapsulated Nickerson’s vision aesthetically, the challenge of adjusting to a rapidly growing business in a 90-square-foot trailer hit Nickerson and his team within three months of their initial launch.

“It might look cute and it might be very [photogenic], but it might be horrible for being able to actually produce volume,” Nickerson said.

Attaining the new property took the team three years of negotiations and was a great feat for Rookie’s as a whole. However, COVID-19 made the celebration of finally owning the building short lived. Contractors completed over $10,000 worth of renovations in March, which Nickerson feared they would struggle to pay back in the wake of coronavirus’s financial devastation on businesses.

“Restaurants were closing all around us and that was a huge low moment of like, ‘I might not be able to quit my job as [a Resident Director] and do this full time. We might not be able to afford the building or the loan we just took on for the property. We might not be able to afford anything,’” Nickerson said. 

Although the LU shutdown this spring took away a huge part of their customer base, the locals remained loyal to the tiny truck and carried the business into the summer of 2020 when the building launch was able to happen.

“Seeing a vision come to life that you have had for a few years is really rewarding,” Nickerson said. “When we opened that first day on July 31 and peeled back the tarp that was covering up the construction site, it was one of the coolest experiences for me.” 

Nickerson emphasized how vital LU students are not only to the success of this new phase in Rookie’s journey, but to the root of where the idea of the truck began years ago.

Inspired by his experience as a Resident Director at Liberty for six years, Nickerson and his wife wanted Rookie’s to be a place where college students could gather and experience the nostalgia of a small town while building up the local community.

“I think we captured a bit of the heartbeat of what students wanted at the time,” Nickerson said.

Angelo “Hoagie” Leonard joined the rookies staff March 2019. While he is excited for the future the building has to offer Rookie’s, he remembers the old truck.

“There are three of us in this little trailer. We’re making cookies in the trailer during the day, putting these ice cream sandwiches together while the line is all the way down the parking lot,” Leonard said. “Those are the nights that were the craziest but were the nights that we had the most fun.” 

Leonard said that while the energy in the trailer was homey, the efficiency of the company skyrocketed once they had the space they needed to make their dough in-house instead of at an off-site location.

Rookie’s goal to make visitors feel at home will not be lost as the team adjusts to their new location and the changes that come with it.

“I would say the veterans from the trailer have their Rookie’s and these new people who are coming in are building, their own foundation for Rookie’s, and it’s so cool to watch them do it how we did it,” Leonard said. “We made Rookie’s our own in the trailer and now they’re making it their own in the building.”

Nadia Vires is a Feature Reporter. Follow her on Twitter at @nadiavires.