The Ice Cream Show in business downtown near Hunter museum

When Roger and Lynda Curtis began looking for a new place to open their ice cream/coffee shop business, the couple from Greenville, S.C., scouted several different cities around the South, including Atlanta; Athens, Ga.; and Charleston, S.C.

But when their son came to Chattanooga to photograph a wedding, he called his dad immediately.

‘“You need to go to Chattanooga,’” Mr. Curtis recalled his son saying. “He said, ‘It’s like Greenville on steroids.’”

The couple saw a spot available in the bottom of a new condominium development in the downtown area — Museum Bluffs Parkview, which sits at the south end of the Walnut Street Bridge and close to the Hunter Museum of American Art. Months later, that’s exactly where the Curtises opened The Ice Cream Show.

The store opened May 5, and the Curtises say they have been pleased with the response they have gotten so far.

Roger Wright, owner of Fudgewrights on Market Street, said he has already visited the shop. The store is kind of in its own area, and he believes it will be a good location, said Mr. Wright. His own shop on Market Street has been in business for the past eight years.

“Of any business to locate there, (an ice cream shop) would be the most likely candidate,” he said.

The Curtises started working on the 1,500 square-foot space in March, and invested about $150,000 to build it the way they wanted.

The couple owns three of the businesses already — two in Greenville and one in Clemson, S.C. They opened their first store in Greenville in 2002 as a coffee shop called Spill the Beans. Once they added ice cream, it quickly became the dominant seller, Mrs. Curtis said.

“The ice cream was sort of an accident,” Mr. Curtis said.

The store sells Mayfield Dairy products, from the milk that goes into the lattes and cappuccinos to the frozen yogurt and ice cream, which are sold in just vanilla and chocolate.

The ice cream flavors serve as a base for the variety of fruit, candy and cookie toppings that can be mixed into the ice cream. In all, the mix-ins can yield 17,000 different flavor combinations, according to the owners.

Even after seven years in the business, the Curtises still argues over the best flavors. Mr. Curtis swears by vanilla ice cream with strawberries, cheesecake and macadamia nuts, while Mrs. Curtis loves chocolate and raspberries.

The owners expect to sell more ice cream than coffee drinks, about three-to-one ratio. So far they have hired five part-time workers and one full-time employee.

Mr. Curtis, 59, and Mrs. Curtis, 58, thought they would never leave Greenville until they visited Chattanooga.

“I used to tell people in Greenville I’d never live one mile north of here,” he said.

But as it turns out, the two cities are not really that different. With BMW’s headquarters in Greenville and Volkswagen’s plant coming to Chattanooga, both cities have close ties to German automakers.

Also, the areas where the Curtises have chosen to locate their businesses are in thriving downtown areas with universities and water features nearby. In Greenville, Spill the Beans is located near Reedy River Falls inside Falls Park in the city’s downtown.

The couple, who are former missionaries, talk about possibly opening another location in the future, but experience has taught them to choose their sites carefully.

“We are looking for killer locations,” said Mr. Curtis, who said the Chattanooga location absolutely qualifies. “We expect this store is going to be the best we’ve ever opened.”