Mayor Peter Marchetti gets a cone from Patrick Doyle on Friday.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Ice cream is again being swirled into cones and cups at a long-beloved city spot.

King Kone had a soft opening at the end of the week, offering the frozen treats on a "pay what you will" basis while employees perfected the craft.

"It's gone pretty good," employee Patrick Doyle said.

"It gets really fast-paced even with a few customers and the learning curve is steeper than I thought but other than that it's been fun so far and I really am doing this because I believe in you know the cooperative ownership, working class struggle."

He has a full-time job but made time in his schedule to be a part of this.

Nonprofit Roots & Dreams and Mustard Seeds purchased the property and the shop will run as a workers' co-op. Everyone is paid a flat wage, sharing revenues, and will have the opportunity to buy into the business.

"It's about transparent decision making, cooperative negotiation for decisions, conflicts," co-founder Michael Hitchcock said.

"Skills about how to think like an owner instead of an employee, like taking responsibility for the whole operation and understanding that any action you do commits everyone else's time and resources so you have to be cognizant of the others. Those are the kinds of skills we'll be working on in our monthly meetings. That's our next big hurdle."