I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.

That’s what Coy and Donna Faucheux hope Slidell residents will keep doing after they reopened their Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream Store on Gause Boulevard Tuesday afternoon.

The ice cream store has been at its present location at 1597 Gause Blvd. for 12 years, but it has undergone several changes in that time.

It'€™s a family affair as Jeffery Holmes, center, cuts the ribbon for the reopening of his parents'€™ Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream Store on Gause Boulevard in Slidell. To the left of Holmes is his mother, Donna Faucheux, to the right is his father Coy Faucheux. Attending the ribbon-cutting from left is Dawn Sharpe, CEO of the East St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce, Mary Goss, Charlene Tavon, Gerry Cabirac, Donna Faucheux, Rick Swartz, Jeffery Holmes, Lee Balinas, Coy Faucheux, Diane Balinas, Jerry Labit and Cheri Webster. (Staff Photo by Erik Sanzenbach)

First, there was Hurricane Katrina. The store did sustain flood damage, but the Faucheuxs were able to reopen quickly after the storm.

“We were the first business to open after the storm,” Donna said. “We opened Sept. 9, 2005.”

Donna and Coy not only provided ice cream, but were also giving out sandwiches and soft drinks to rescue workers and volunteers who came into town to help rebuild.

Then last year, the Baskin-Robbins corporate headquarters decided the store needed a facelift. So Coy and Donna redid the entire interior of the business, with new paint, counters, tables and chairs.

“It’s all new,” Donna said.

They have even added some new treats to their large inventory. Baskin-Robbins now sells soft-serve ice cream. The soft-serve also comes in all sorts of fruit flavors with real fruit blended into the ice cream. Of course, they still have the multitude of flavors for regular ice cream, plus the malts, shakes and other goodies associated with ice cream.

The ice cream cake, which is a staple of Baskin-Robbins, is still the biggest seller, according to Coy.

“We have 100 cakes on site at all times,” Coy said. “ And we sell about 12,000 ice cream cakes a year.”

He said it is a real struggle to keep up with the cake inventory, especially since the storm.

“I lost a lot of my cake decorators due to the evacuation,” Coy said.

Being a master decorator himself, Coy said he had to take up the slack. Now with his son, Jeffery, and other decorators, Coy said they are back up to speed.

“We have cakes for every holiday, including a Mardi Gras ice cream king cake,” Coy said.

Business has been good for the Faucheux family. Coy said his store is in the black all year round. Oddly enough, he said he makes his best sales during January, when it is cold, and sales slow down in November.

Coy has been with Baskin-Robbins for 28 years and said it is a great business to be in. He used to have a store in Chalmette, but that got destroyed in the storm. But he said the Slidell store, with its drive-up window and other amenities, makes up for the loss.

“One of these days, I’m going to find me a real job,” Coy joked.