After a hot day climbing at Smith Rock, people will soon be able to descend upon Bend’s new stone, a custom-order ice cream shop called the Cold Stone Creamery.

The design-your-own ice cream franchise will open a Bend location June 9 and hand out free samples during the grand opening June 10 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

”We make our own ice cream daily,” said store owner Mike Vaughan. ”It’s a premiere creamy hard ice cream.”

Customers choose from 12 flavors of ice cream and 35 mix-ins which are blended together by metal paddle on a granite stone cooled to 16 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix-ins include candy bars, six kinds of nuts, fruit, and of course, caramel and hot fudge. There are 30 preconfigured designs with names like Cheesecake Fantasy, Butter Fingers Fumble, and Mud Pie Mojo.

Cold Stone’s ice cream, yogurt and Italian sorbet are made daily in each store.

Customers can find other standard ice cream store fare like cakes, pies, shakes and sundaes as well.

The franchise has more than 390 stores in the United States and Caribbean, and is planning a second location in Bend in the next nine months or so, according to Brenda Bigalke, company area developer.

The first Cold Stone Creamery was founded by Susan and Donald Sutherland in in Tempe, Ariz. in 1988. Tucson was the site of the first franchise in 1995.

This summer a new franchise will open in New York City’s Times Square.

The Bend store is at 1180 South Third St., at the corner of Reed Market Road.

Store hours are Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

From the economic side of the stone, the store will employ 24 part-time workers, mostly high school and college students, Vaughan said.

Cold Stone gets thousands of applications a year for entrepreneurs wanting to open their own franchise, and only about 2 percent of those are approved, Bigalke said. It costs between $250,000 and $300,000 to open a store, she said. License fees are $31,000.

Chris Young can be reached at 541-383-0350 or at cyoung@bendbulletin.com. Photo illustration by Chris Young.