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Netflix debuted Season 3 of Stranger Things this past July 4th weekend and, according to the streaming service, the show was watched by 40.7 million households with 18.2 million households finishing the entire season during the four-day weekend, which the streaming giant says makes it their most-watched show ever. Season 3 saw the return of a lot of fan favorites from the previous seasons, including Joe Keery's Steve Harrington.
With high school behind him, Steve is now working at Scoops Ahoy -- the local ice creams shop -- for the summer alongside his no-nonsense coworker Robin, played by newcomer Maya Hawke. Scoops Ahoy becomes the main setting in the Starcourt Mall, where most of the worldly and otherworldly shenanigans occur during the season. Steve, Robin, Gaten Matarazzo's Dustin Henderson and Priah Ferguson's Erica Sinclair form the "Scoops Troop," battling everything from Communist assassins to the main villain of Season 3, The Monster; all from their home base at Scoops Ahoy.
To coincide with the Season 3 debut of its smash hit, Netflix commissioned a number of Stranger Things pop up installations to appear all over LA in the past few weeks. They included a Hawkins, Indiana fun fair on the Santa Monica pier and a Starcourt Mall set up in the old Tower Records building. For the next two weeks, they've converted a Baskin Robbins shop in Burbank to a Scoops Ahoy ice cream shop, where you can stop by and step into the world of Stranger Things.
The installation is a dead ringer for the shop we see in the show, from the outside sign to the lettering on the overhead menus to the employees wearing the instantly recognizable sailor outfits that Steve and Robin wear. The installation also features numerous specialty items named from items in the series, including The Upside Down sundae, which features the toppings on your sundae going in first and the ice cream going in last. There's also a Demogorgon sundae, which is a waffle cone with a scoop of ice cream, topped by strawberry sauce to mirror the look of a Demogorgon's mouth. There's also the Elevenade Freeze, flavors named after characters in the show, and a personal favorite, the USS Butterscotch. This nautical sundae is a banana split with three scoops of butterscotch ice cream and Waffle Cone triangles made to look like ship's sails.
Collider's Wendy Lee, Dorian Parks and John Rocha, who are massive Stranger Things fans, decided to form their own Scoops Troop and visited the Scoops Ahoy installation to try out all the ice cream goodness. Dorian got the Demogorgon sundae and freaked out a bit from the authentic Demogorgon look of it. Wendy ordered the Upside Down sundae with a scoop of Eleven's Heaven, a specialty flavor in honor of Millie Bobby Brown's Eleven. Rocha indulged in the grandaddy of them all, the USS Butterscotch, with scoops of Vanilla, Peanut Butter N Chocolate and Pralines N Cream.
The installation captures the realistic look of the shop from the show, complete with a galley that visitors can step into to take photos. As soon as you step inside, you are greeted with a hearty "Ahoy!" from the employees before they take your order. Outside, the blue and off-white Scoops Ahoy sign and drive-thru menu mirrors the looks of the signs and menus on the show. Overall, the Collider Video Scoops Troop had a great time experiencing the installation and enjoyed the ice cream selections on tap in the shop. If you're in Burbank for the next week or so, do yourself a favor and come aboard the Scoops Ahoy!
Event images via Wendy Lee/Collider
