On the Massachusetts Ice Cream Trail with Gov. Maura Healey marking Four Seas' 90th year

Ice Cream Trail with Gov. Healey

CENTERVILLE ― Gov. Maura Healey ate a peppermint stick ice cream cone yesterday squeezed into the kitchen with Four Seas Ice Cream owners Peggy and Doug Warren plus a crowd of staffers and media.

The state’s highest elected official was there to celebrate a stop on the new Massachusetts Ice Cream Trail.

“I came here because this is the oldest continuously operating ice cream shop in the state,” Healey said, as she gave the Warrens a proclamation marking the shop’s 90th anniversary.

The shop is a favorite for generations and boasts a long list of celebrity visitors. Healey mentioned members of the Kennedy family and megastar Taylor Swift. In an interview before Healey's visit, Peggy Warren said counter staff told her Chris Pratt ("Guardians of the Galaxy," "Parks and Recreation," "Jurassic World") had stopped in recently.

The document Healey brought praised the Warrens’ contributions to the community and their creative use of many local ingredients in the gallons of ice cream they make each week at the shop at 360 South Main St. in Centerville.

Doug Warren said Four Seas gets strawberries from Tony Andrews Farm in Falmouth. State Rep. Kip Diggs, D-2nd Barnstable, pointed out at Wednesday's event that the purchase supports not only local business but also a business run by Cape Verdeans.

Gov. Healey met by 30 people protesting transmission lines under beaches

Healey and her staff arrived at about 2:40 p.m. and were greeted by 30 or so protesters across the street from Four Seas, who were chanting “Protect our beaches, say no to Avangrid!”

After finishing her Four Seas’ visit, Healey took a few minutes to talk with the crowd saying she was aware of concerns having to do with transmission lines on the beaches but that federal studies show they emit the same (electromagnetic radiation) as a television.

“The whole reason for transmission lines is part of the move away from climate damage,” Healey said, noting that Massachusetts is a leader in renewable energy.

Protestors voiced concerns about water pollution and beach access rights in connection with wind power. Healey said she was listening, following research and trying to balance the state’s needs including an urgent need for workforce housing. The crowd dispersed without input from Barnstable police who were standing by for traffic control.

Four Seas Ice Cream by the numbers

Before speaking to the protesters, the governor spent a half-hour with the Warrens, talking about their business.

In an interview before the visit, Peggy Warren said the 90-year-old shop, where her mother-in-law worked at age 16, employs 30-40 young workers each summer; scoops 24 flavors at a time and is constantly cycling in seasonal flavors including peach and, also specials like cinnamon cookie ice cream.

Warren said Four Seas starts the busy summer season with 4,000 gallons in the freezer and makes 460 to 500 more gallons (in 10-gallon batches) three or four days a week.

The business is still for sale at the original asking price of $3.1 million, as was announced in March. But it is also still open 9 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily until Aug. 28 when the counter help returns to school. Then, Four Seas will close at 8 p.m.

Warren said she and her husband are usually working in the shop, where they perfect recipes and make sure the flavor doesn’t change if a particular ingredient is no longer available.

“In our chocolate, for example, we use three types of chocolate, and some other ingredients we never talk about, to get the flavor that hits the front of your mouth, the middle and the back so you have a really full flavor,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: On the Massachusetts Ice Cream Trail with Gov. Maura Healey marking Four Seas' 90th year