Yesterday marked the grand opening of Marble Slab Creamery in downtown Bowling Green – an ice cream shop the likes of which few patrons have seen before.

Marble Slab Creamery provides their customers with an atmosphere free of creative boundaries. With 22 flavors, 37 toppings and a unique mixing process comparable to kneading bread dough, the potential combinations are limited only by a person’s imagination.

For owner Deb Kennard and her son Harris, these characteristics were what drew their attention to Marble Slab Creamery.

Heralded as an entrepreneur since he started trading baseball cards at the age of six, Harris – a junior at the University – talked his mom into the idea of owning an ice cream store after a friend returned from Florida, raving about ice cream and toppings kneaded over top a slab of refrigerated stone.

They looked into the process through an online search and found Marble Slab Creamery’s Web site. After weighing the options of other ice cream store franchises, the Kennards decided on Marble Slab Creamery because, according to Deb, “we just loved the product.”

The ice cream base is made from a fresh dairy mix, which is something customers won’t find in ice cream at the local grocery store, Deb said. From that initial base, natural ingredients are added to create each specific flavor.

For example: real strawberries make up Strawberry, 100 percent mango fruit goes into Mango and premium cocoa from Switzerland and other European countries lies at the heart of their Chocolate ice cream.

For fans of traditional combinations, ice cream shop staples like Cookies n’ Cream, Peanut Butter Crunch and Rocky Road are available.

Those willing to expand their taste buds’ boundaries could try pre-named creations like “Willy Wonka” (double-dark chocolate with almonds and coconut), “Tipsy Sailor” (amaretto with chocolate chips and almonds), and “Raspberry Cheesecake” (cheesecake with raspberries and graham crackers).

Fresh waffle cones are also made in the shop on traditional waffle irons and are dipped in chocolate, nuts and other toppings.

For customers Dina and Joe Baunoch, walking by Marble Slab Creamery yesterday without going inside was not an option. They just had to try it.

“I work in the area,” Dina said, “and when I passed by it made me drool.”

While Joe was able to control his salivary glands, he likes the ice cream at Marble Slab because it’s creamier than the store-bought brand and because he gets to basically create it.

“I think it’s a great idea that you get to add your own toppings – your own innards – I don’t know what to call it,” Joe said.

The last ice cream shop to grace Bowling Green’s downtown shopping district, Beyond 2000 Ice Cream Shop, closed in March 2004 after nearly four years of business.

According to former owner Sandy Cady, she and her husband Jim closed the shop for personal reasons. They wish Marble Slab Creamery the best of luck, but wonder whether or not a specialty ice cream shop can survive on that product alone.

“We hope this store does well,” Cady said, “but we question whether they will unless they have more than ice cream.”

Deb Kennard is confident that her business will not be pigeonholed as just a regular old ice cream shop.

Marble Slab Creamery’s extensive menu offers specialty ice cream pies and cakes that, just like their plethora of ice cream options, can be customized any way imaginable. Yesterday Kennard made a customer-requested cake which included raspberries and Ho-Ho’s in the middle, as well as a child’s birthday cake that called for a layer of gummy bears and sprinkles inside.

They also offer four flavors of non-fat yogurt, smoothies made with real fruit juices, sundaes, banana splits and many more traditional ice cream shop goodies.

Kennard predicts that the shops catering service and cake orders will make up 20 to 30 percent of their income alone.

In addition, the shop’s unique process of kneading ice cream and toppings together on a marble slab will bring customers in from outside Bowling Green, Kennard said.

With a master’s degree in clinical psychology, Deb left behind a license to practice psychology in Michigan and is in the process of moving to Bowling Green, confident that community members and University students will embrace Marble Slab Creamery’s unique style of ice cream.

“We hope to serve this community – the youth of this community – and do that while maintaining the highest level of integrity as a business,” Kennard said. “Whether it be from work or school, people come here because they think of it as a 15-minute vacation.”