Here’s the scoop: Chunky Monkey to reopen as Pearl City Creamery
The Chunky Monkey ice cream shop on Market Street in downtown Clinton will reopen for the season within the next week or so, but with a new name: It will now be called the Pearl City Creamery. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
First, the good news. The store that opened last year as the Chunky Monkey, at 303 Market St., and which has been closed for the season since November, will be reopening later this month – but will be known as Pearl City Creamery from now on, its owner said this week.
“We will be back, and we will continue to offer the same great Blue Bell ice cream,” owner Troy Shafer told The Courier News.
But because of a trademark-infringement issue, the store will no longer use the Chunky Monkey name, he said. That name is trademarked by ice cream icon Ben & Jerry’s, which uses it on its popular banana ice cream flavor with fudge chunks and walnuts.
Although the former Chunky Monkey ice cream store in Norris has used that name for years, Shafer said that the trademark issue came up as he was attempting to register his business with the state of Tennessee.
Shafer, who also owns a computer technology business in Knoxville, confirmed in late 2024 that he would be taking over the Chunky Monkey business that was in Norris, and would be moving it to downtown Clinton.
The previous owner, Angie Litton, announced in October 2024 that the ice cream shop had lost its lease at the 139 Little Senator Circle location in Norris.
Shafer opened the new Chunky Monkey store on April 12, 2025.
As for the bad news, ice-cream-wise, Burr-ville Sweet Treats, which opened in June 2023 at 197 Edgewood Ave. behind the Walgreen’s pharmacy on South Main Street, has closed permanently, according to a sign posted on the front door of the shop. It had closed for the season in the fall, but had been expected to reopen this spring.
The owner was Carla Long Burroughs, who also runs Genesis Real Estate Title Co. next door in the same building.
With a long freezer display case full of tubs of Blue Bell ice cream, the shop offered scoops and cones of ice cream, sundaes, banana splits, and hand-dipped milkshakes.
Burroughs said in 2023 that she had bought the building in 2021, but was using only one side of it for her title company.
“I didn’t want to be a landlord, so I decided to start another business in the other side,” she said, adding that she wanted to open the shop to “give the community a place to hang out and eat ice cream,” especially young people.
She could not be reached on Monday for comment about why she chose not to reopen the shop this year.
Meanwhile, Shafer said he has plans to add to the ice cream offerings at his new Pearl City Creamery, including perhaps featuring a soft-serve “flavor of the day,” and even making some regular ice cream flavors in-house.
He still does not plan to offer food items, however, such as the cheeseburgers the previous Chunky Monkey location was famous for.
