Opening days for new Maricopa restaurants are consistently hectic and lucrative. That held true for the city’s newest ice cream shop, which opened last week. 

Franchise owner and Tortosa resident Luis Leon said the new Cold Stone Creamery at 17430 N. Porter Road had some of the best sales in the state when the parlor served its first scoops Friday.  

“The whole weekend was good in terms of numbers, but Friday was a really, really good day for us,” he told InMaricopa. “I know that our store had one of the top sales in the state.” 

Cold Stone, based in Scottsdale, has shops in 33 countries and 48 states, with the third-most in Arizona. Maricopa is the state’s 45th location.  

While they have yet to crunch all the numbers due to the “overwhelming” response from ice cream-craving Maricopans, Leon and his wife Adriana said they appreciated the warm welcome to the community.  

Leon said Cold Stone will host a formal grand opening Oct. 12 from 3 to 7 p.m. with music, face painting, a balloon artist and more.