After a Pittsburgh Penguins win it is a party on Fifth Ave., but following the news Thursday night that forward Jake Guentzel has been traded to the Carolina Hurricanes, it was a Yinzer funeral in downtown Pittsburgh Friday afternoon at the MilkShake Factory.

At noon on Friday the downtown MilkShake Factory held an event to send Guentzel and the beloved Jake’s Shake off in style. The company announced the event as “Final Jake’s Shake Day Friday”, and the first fifty people in the door received a free Jake’s Shake t-shirt.

Fans lined up outside the store and were given numbers depending on where they were in line. One woman was especially excited to receive the number 59.

At 12 p.m. the doors opened and Vice President of Operations, Shawn Smith, addressed the crowd. He then raised a Guentzel jersey up the rafters of the store, symbolizing both the retirement of the Jake’s Shake and Guenztel’s time as a Penguin.

The Jake’s Shake brought in plenty of Pittsburgh fans when Guentzel scored a goal for the Penguins during a game, as they would be priced half off the following day. The shake consisted of oven-baked fresh brownie pieces, crushed cookies and cream, and melted fudge. It was garnished with whipped cream and a number 59 chocolate piece, the number worn on Guentzel’s black and gold back.

Following the bittersweet ceremony, people who were given numbers one through thirty stayed inside to line up to receive their shakes while the rest of the milkshake goers waited outside. As fans received their shakes and exited, more people were ushered in to avoid an overcrowded store.

VP of Operations Shawn Smith had no idea the milkshake would become such a hit when it started in 2018, but it has grown their business exponentially. With Guentzel’s success on the team came success with the shake and company as well.

“I mean, we got a rookie, right? So this rookie, we have no idea if he is going to score, if he’s going to get traded, if he’s going to get hurt, we had no idea,” Smith said.

“It just so happened that ‘Jake’ and ‘shake’ went together. And we’re like, let’s give it a shot. So we give it a shot and then he becomes the number one scorer.”

Guenztel originally lived in the apartments right across the street from the downtown MilkShake Factory location and would frequent the store.

Despite the shake leaving, the MilkShake factory still has a parternship with the Penguins, and that will not be going anywhere.

“We’ll work with the Pens and come up with what that means with our connection there,” Smith said.

Smith noted the MilkShake factory recently sold sixty franchise locations throughout the country, so similar to Guentzel, the company’s shakes will be finding new homes as well.

“Nobody knows what a Jake’s Shake is out there,” Smith said. “So we have marketing put in for promoting our shakes in those areas, but we aren’t going to be doing an association with a player in every area or anything like that.”

Smith spoke on his reaction to Guentzel being traded to the Carolina Hurricanes.

“I don’t love it,” Smith said with a laugh. “So, not super excited about him getting traded, but we’ll support him wherever he goes.”