First Scoop: Oak Park Ice Cream Shop Opens Doors to Nut-Allergy Families

For kids with severe nut allergies, an ice cream shop visit has always felt like watching from behind glass—a place where other children get to celebrate a simple joy while they stay safely on the sidelines. That’s changing in Oak Park, where Susan Stewart decided her ice cream shop, Licked, would become a space where allergies don’t have to be a barrier.

Stewart’s motivation came from personal experience. As someone with a shellfish allergy, she understands the constant vigilance required to avoid life-threatening reactions, even from trace amounts. When conversations with her team turned to the particular dangers nut allergies pose—airborne particles, contaminated scoops, even shared dipping water—she saw an opportunity to do something bold: strip the shop entirely of nuts and create a genuinely safe environment for families who’ve had to say no to ice cream.

The transition wasn’t just a menu edit. Baye Canty, an employee at Licked, was part of the deep cleaning effort required to make the nut-free promise real. No peanut butter ice cream. No rocky road. No trace amounts lurking in corners or on equipment. For a small shop like Licked that sources ice cream rather than making it in-house, the compact space worked in their favor—easier to sanitize, easier to control. It’s the kind of detail that matters enormously when someone’s child’s safety is on the line.

What makes this story land hardest, though, is the human moment Stewart describes: watching a kid ask their mother if they really could order anything. The answer was yes. That’s not just a menu change. It’s a moment of inclusion that families with severe allergies rarely experience in hospitality spaces. Parents know the look—that quiet disappointment when their child realizes a place they’re excited about isn’t actually for them. Licked flipped that script.

For now, the nut-free initiative runs through July 2026, though Stewart hasn’t ruled out extending it based on how the community responds. That hesitation isn’t indifference; it’s pragmatism. Nut-free operations require commitment and ongoing diligence. But if July shows that demand exists and families keep showing up—that kids keep asking if they really can have anything—Stewart might find that making space for people with allergies is exactly what her shop needed to be.