Bundled up in coats, hats and flannels, customers lined up outside a colorful Rockville storefront on a chilly December night waiting for ice. Not the kind that falls from the sky, but the New Jersey-style version that is scooped into a cup and comes in a rainbow of flavors from root beer to blue raspberry to spicy mango coconut.
It’s Jayden Day at Carmen’s Italian Ice and Café (as it is Monday and the eighth of every month). Even though the eatery only offers outdoor seating, dozens of customers have braved the cold temperatures for a half-price sweet treat. Standing among the crowd was the man who started it all in 2001.
“It can never be too cold for Carmen’s,” Jason Mandler, a Gaithersburg resident, joked with his customers.
Among the customers stood Rockville resident Ashia Mann, who has only missed a couple Jayden Days in her 15 years living in Rockville.
Mandler and Boodie Mandler, his wife and business partner, have simply become part of “the fabric of the community,” Mann said.
But it is another Mandler who inspired Jayden Day, and he turned 18 on Dec. 8.
Jayden Mandler was born Dec. 8, 2005. By that time, Jason Mandler had already taken what was once a coffee shop called Peaberries and transformed it into Carmen’s. The moniker was inspired by a man who taught Mandler how to make Italian ice, a treat ubiquitous in Mandler’s native New Jersey that he couldn’t find in his new Maryland home.
Customers kept asking about the Mandlers’ new baby, so they brought him in each month to greet customers from his car seat placed on a table. Since then, Carmen’s started the tradition of Jayden Day.
Thomas Pretl, a catering manager for Carmen’s, remembers the first time Jason Mandler brought his son to the shop about a week after he was born.
“I do specifically remember just how absolutely excited Jason was,” Pretl said. “He wanted to grow this business and create something to provide for his family, like a legacy to leave behind.”
Pretl said that when Jayden was born, it sparked a fire underneath Jason as he realized his business was “the ultimate gamble” and it needed to work out. And as his son Jayden has grown, so has Carmen’s.
The Rockville Carmen’s shop sells about 22,000 of its three most popular items — Italian ice, custard and gelatis (layers of ice and custard)— each month. The ever-growing menu also offers coffees, milk shakes, and snacks such as churros and funnel cake fries.
Another Carmen’s in Olney opened in April 2020, followed by openings with its partners in Clarksburg, Kentlands and the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute at Washington, D.C.
But it’s the flagship store in Rockville that has become an epicenter of memories for many locals who have frequented the shop throughout the years.
Carmen’s is a celebration destination for boys covered in dirt after finishing their baseball games on the fields across Nelson Street. It’s a place for children who crave the refreshing taste of Italian ice after swimming at the Woodley Gardens Pool in the hot summers. It’s the location of awkward first dates, exciting promposals and even a marriage proposal.
On the last Jayden Day of 2023, a group of high school seniors sat at the outdoor tables, scooping Italian ice into their mouths in-between jokes. A newly-engaged couple savored their Italian ice together, while neighbors caught up after running into each other.
“Now, 18 years later, it’s busy. It’s become that place where people will take their friends if they’ve never been here,” Jason Mandler said. “You got to come on Jayden Day. It’s part of our story.”
The next Jayden Day will be Monday. Carmen’s is located at 1115 Nelson St., Rockville, Maryland 20850 and is open 2 p.m. to 9 p.m.