I think news of a new restaurant in the area can spread like wildfire in any office, and the newsroom experienced a ripple of excitement last week after receiving a field report that the Tim Horton’s location on Winchester Avenue is now offering Coldstone Creamery ice cream.

My baby had never tried Coldstone Creamery, so we hit the drive-through window and tried Chocolate Devotion, a devilish creation combining ultra-creamy chocolate ice cream with hunks of things including brownies and chocolate.

“This ice cream is so good it’s evil,” she said by text after driving away with the majority of the big ice-cream cone.

A coworker sampled the “chocolate peanut butter thing — first on menu,” and declared it quite tasty, although she really wanted pistachio flavor, which is not available locally.

Now open

A quartet of “designing women” have opened a new shop, Town & Country Design, at the corner of Greenup Avenue and 16th Street in Ashland at the former Pier 17 location.

Owner Jayme Jackson said she and associates Judy Moore, Jennifer Taylor and Bonnie Murray are striving to work with anyone “from design on a dime to high end” to provide interior design, floral design, furniture upholstering, custom drapery, fabrics, floral design, gift baskets and a long list of additional services that ends with free estimates and free delivery.

The highly visible storefront location provides a new home for Town & Country Design, although the business itself isn’t new and has been operating from the Pendleton Art Center. Jackson noted Moore is also a former employee of the Graebear Gallery.

The new shop is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and at other times by appointment. For more information, call (606) 325-0277.

Edsel interest

You never know which stories will catch people’s interest, and I was a little pleasantly surprised at the number of people who commented about a recent story about a gathering of Edsel automobiles during Grayson’s annual Memory Days festival. Charlie Wheeler read that story and then provided an interesting local angle regarding the Edsel, although I’ve had no luck trying to verify the tale.

Here’s the story — when Ford told the world it was going to launch the Edsel brand, the announcements were postmarked from Wade Blevins’ Store in Edsel, Ky. which is a community in nearby Elliott County.

If anyone can verify this, I would love to hear from them.

Worden’s win

There were plenty who deserved recognition during the recent 2009 Small Business Awards breakfast in Flatwoods, and I was pleased to hear Tom Worden of WP Studio had been chosen to receive the New & Emerging Business of the Year honor.

Worden entered a market already strong with outstanding photographers and found a way to carve a niche for himself. Worden has also proven his dedication to the local community by showing up, camera at the ready, for practically every public event I’ve attended in the past few months. I’ve driven past his studio on Winchester Avenue late at night, and even a few early mornings, and noticed he was still hard at work.

While I think anyone who manages to keep a small business alive deserves some sort of recognition, it was nice to see that award go to someone who is putting everything they have into what they’re doing. For information about WP Studio, call (606) 329-0091.

Helping animals

A reader advises anyone who wants to support local Humane Society efforts to designate the Boyd County Animal Shelter for contributions, since there is no humane society chapter in Ashland. I’m told this is especially important when people ask for memorial contributions.

TIM PRESTON can be reached at tpreston@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2651.