It is the year 2024 and A.C’s Icees is still booming with business although the beloved owner, Allen Cohen, also known as A.C., has had some set backs, such as a knee replacement. He has kept himself strong, along with his absolutely adorable dogs, Princess and Peanut. 

“If I was going to work I was going to make Kennedy park my office,” he recalled.

In the 1960s when John F. Kennedy Park was still new, A.C., as he likes to be called, used to run a 10K a week with his friends. At the time, he was working as the vice president at a pool company that quickly collapsed. A.C. decided to work on a new project: A.C.’s Icees store. 

His first year he requested a permit from Parks and Recreation for his now iconic parking spot. He was arrested that same year for “disrupting the peace.” So when he went before the mayor to plead his case, he asked if he could “go mobile,” creating the first food truck in Florida. At the time, Parks and Recreation did not even know what a food truck was. Instead they called it a “mobile business.” To keep his spot, A.C. has to pay taxes and insurance annually. 

“I used to be super athletic, but old age seems to have caught up to me,” A.C. mentioned.

A.C. used to be a competitive baseball player for 40 fantastic years. In fact, in 2019 he started the World League baseball game with the first pitch. He had his own team for eight years which was known as A.C.’s Icees Team.

A.C. found Princess and Peanut, siblings from the same litter, on the street when they were just born 12 years ago. Today, he takes his dogs on walks every single morning, to get some much needed exercise, after he makes the juices for A.C.’s Icees. Sadly, he cannot walk his dogs as much as he used to since his knee replacement. Instead, he has hired a dog walker to help his little guards get their exercise. 

“I spoil these puppy’s rotten you know, but they still think they are guard dogs,” said A.C.

Just a short walk from the ILS campus, if you are ever in John F. Kennedy Park, enjoy a crisp A.C.’s Icee. The man behind the icee has some words of advice, too.

“Never give up on your dreams, even if it gets you arrested,” he joked.