CHILDREN LESS THAN 40 INCHES TALL GET FREE ICE CREAM cones at Bruster's Real Ice Cream stores. On Doggy Sundays, that family pet gets a scoop of the creamy stuff with a dog bone embedded inside. On Banana Thursdays, customers bearing that particular fruit can use it in a banana split for half price. And on annual PJ weekends, those arriving in their pajamas get a cone absolutely free.

"That's nine ounces of ice cream in a homemade waffle cone," explains Kim Piper, the company's vice president of marketing. The result? "Lots of people come in their pjs," she says. In fact, lots of people come in all sorts of conditions to Bruster's facilities located up and down the East Coast from New Hampshire to Florida with major hubs in Pittsburgh and Atlanta. That's because, according to Piper, "it's a fun company, very dedicated and very warm. How can you go wrong with ice cream?"

Not easily, judging from the company's success. Founded in 1989 by Bruce Reed, a man who grew up working in his family's carhop diner, the first Bruster's in Bridgewater, Pennsylvania, was an immediate hit. "The difference," Piper says, "was that we made the ice cream right in the store. It was a fresh product, which was very unusual back then. It had a homemade type of taste and consistency. It wasn't (something) that came out of a machine or something that came from somewhere else."

Creating the ice cream on the premises, she says, "makes a wonderful difference--it's smooth and creamy, with no ice crystals on top."

Today that ice cream company features about 120 flavors--some originals developed by Bruster's, others old standards. All are rotated regularly according to customers whims. Among the more unusual flavors Piper says, are peach, black raspberry, pumpkin cheesecake, eggnog, peppermint stick, Cotton Candy Explosion and Thin Mint (like the Girl Scout cookie.) A more recent innovation is Burstin' Bubbles, a bubblegum flavor sprinkled with pop rocks that fizzle in your mouth. Bruster's signature flavors include White Turtle (white chocolate ice cream with pecans and caramel), Chocolate Raspberry Truffle, Peanut Butter Puddles, Monkey Madness (banana with marshmallow swirl), and Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Balls.

Speed is always a big focus. Each store has eight serving windows with multiple registers.

Though the company has experienced steady growth through the years, its real spurt began about 18 months ago, about the same time they added drive-thru windows. "Our goal for this year," Piper says, "is to open 50 new stores. Last year we opened 40." And to move steadily west. "We're sort of filling in the Carolinas, have stores opening in the Maryland and Washington D.C. areas, and have lots of stores in Florida." Piper says. "Indiana is the farthest west we are now, but our goal is California. We do plan to be a national chain in the future. It will probably happen in the next 10 years."

WHY IT BEARS WATCHING: Ice cream isn't something most people think of as fast food. Bruster's Real Ice Cream, however, specializes in just that: fresh stuff made right on the premises and sold quickly from outdoor walk-up windows and drive-thrus.

BRUSTER'S REAL ICE CREAM

CEO: Jim Sahene HQ: Bridgewater, Pennsylvania YEAR STARTED: 1989 ANNUAL SALES: Unavailable TOTAL UNITS: 163 FRANCHISE UNITS: 156