Ice Cream Diaries 3
Hello again from the East of Hampton. Time for another batch of
ice cream banter. Just had my
one month anniversary, time flies when you work in a candy store. I think I left you last time sitting with
Rudy, the root beer kid. Sure enough,
he truly is a regular. Comes in every couple of days. Always sits at the first barstool. He’s usually alone, but sometimes he’s with
Bennie, the chubby jolly kid with the crew cut. Bennie’s the mayor, always has the big grin,
generally goes for the banana split without the
pineapple topping, talks the whole time while Rudy just studies his float like
it’s a math problem. While Bennie and
Rudy enjoy their cocktails, let me tell what’s been going on the past couple
weeks. First and foremost, construction
on the new ice cream kitchen is nearly completed. The wall between the front and back rooms has
been moved, the tile floor is in, and the non-porous whiteboard is up. The 3-phase electrical power is installed
(that one hurt the wallet a little, need it for the
batch freezer, my gift to the old building).
Dad’s located most of the equipment I need. In fact, the first piece, a walk-in
refrigerator, was delivered and assembled today! The best news there is he was able to score a
used batch freezer, saving me a pile of money, (I just saved a bunch of money
on my batch freezer. Sorry Geiko.) so I am still on-budget (knocking on the hardwood floor
right now). Now we just have to figure
out how to get this 600 pound gorilla from one defunct ice cream shop in CT to
my place in
Once we get the equipment in place and run
the final electrical and water hookups (and one other small detail of getting
board of health approval), the ice cream making fun can begin. The other part of the ice cream making prep
work is lining up all the suppliers.
This basically involves finding a good local dairy, a topping, bulk
ingredient and cone supplier, and a paper products distributor for the paper
bowls and such. Dad’s been working the
network pretty hard these past two weeks (see I told you it was all about the
network), and things seem to be falling into place nicely here too. I had a great opportunity to meet a bunch of
suppliers last week. Yep, I went to my
first ice cream conference. Very cool. It was
held at the Woodstock Inn in
Talks were given by
professional consultants, not unlike the typical tech seminar, but it just felt
different. I’m not sure if it had
something to do with the fact that I paid for the conference myself, or that
the examples used and questions asked during the talks related to ice cream,
but it was actually interesting, and I didn’t nod off once. During breaks, I walked around the tradeshow
floor and checked out hot fudge suppliers and schmoozed with ice cream cone
vendors and dairy owners. My Dad knows
a lot of these people and had already touched base with a number of them by phone,
told them his son would be at the conference.
I felt a little like a rock star.
People were looking for me. I
had just gotten there and was sitting at a table for the first session when
these two guys walked by. I overheard
one saying to the other, I gotta
find this Jim Ingram. To their
surprise, I looked up and said ‘Hi, I’m Jim Ingram’. Quite a few people I met knew Dave, my Dad,
the original ice cream man and unconfirmed inventor of
During a break I called back to my shop to see how Betty was doing. In the middle of the call, I got a flashback of Dad looking for a payphone during some family outing when I was a kid. And at that moment I realized the transition to taking on Dad-like ice cream shop owner traits was underway. If I start wearing blue pants every day, I’ll know the metamorphosis is complete. The conference was well worth it. I learned a ton and made some good contacts for my own little ice cream network, like my cool new friend Janet who manages an ice cream shop in Sharon, Massachusetts.
One thing I’ve noticed a lot over the past couple months is how many people who have ‘appeared’ in my life to help figure things out. If you know me, you know I have a penchant for reading those self-improvement type books. My last read was ‘Excuse me, Your Life is Waiting’, by Lynn Grabhorn. Her thesis is that it’s not positive thinking that works, it’s positive ‘feeling’. You create an image in your mind of the ideal experience, life, mate, whatever it is you desire, then attach to it all the feelings you think you’ll get when you have that in your life. And while you’re at it, stop thinking about what you don’t want (just got a Red Sox playoffs flashback). This creates positive vibrational energy (according to her thesis) which in turn draws positive things into your life. Like attracts like. Back in June, I created a sexy and fun image of owning and operating a successful ice cream business, and voila, things started happening. With a bit of luck and scoop equity, hopefully the success part with come next Summer. To recap, simply create an image in your mind of the life and success you want, stop thinking about what you don’t want, start taking action, and just let the universe fill in the gaps. Just a little ice cream food for thought. This concludes the philosophizing segment of our show.
Anyway, back to lighter notes, let me now share some random
thoughts and experiences from the past couple weeks. In no particular order, here are some recent
entertaining moments (at least they were entertaining to me)... A little girl came into the shop and picked
out a couple pennies from the ‘give a penny, take a penny’ cup on the
counter. Then she holds out her hand and
asks me, ‘what can I get for this’. She
goes over to a jar and pulls out the two pieces of candy I told her she could
afford, then adds two more. She gives me four cents, having added two of
her own to the ‘take a penny’ donation.
See, visualize what you want and the universe finds a way to help you... The first guy I met at the conference was
the franchising manager from Ben and Jerry’s.
I told him my place was in
Two kids came into the shop and sat down at the barstools. They didn’t say anything. They weren’t even looking up at the menu board as if they were trying to decide on a flavor. I figured they were more regulars and again I didn’t know what their ‘usual’ was. I finally approached them and asked, ‘what’ll it be today?’. They said, ‘that’s ok, we don’t want anything. We’re just playing hide and seek’. I couldn’t bring myself to throw them out for using my shop as a hiding place...
I had just served a man and his two boys a few ice cream cones, and he was paying for it. I must have hit a wrong key somewhere on the cash register because when I hit subtotal, it read $285.48. When my Dad came over to help me try to figure out what I’d done wrong, the customer says to him, ‘Wow, you’ve raised quite the entrepreneur, 285 bucks for 3 ice creams.’ … As you might guess, business isn’t booming quite yet. I haven’t advertised or even changed the name on the window (it still says Sunrise Sweeties, which as one of my friends pointed out, seems to suggest a product of a more amorous nature).
So at the end of the day when I’m closing up shop, while I shut the big wooden front door and turn the key, I like to exclaim, ‘They won’t be shutting down the Bailey Savings and Loan today!’ Ok, so I’m easily entertained. But we’ll just see if you mysteriously get a hankerin’ for an ice cream cone in the middle of watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” this holiday season… Anyway, looks like I’ve reached my two page limit (I realize the last episode was a bit long, don’t want to get an angry email from your boss), so I’ll say so long for now.
Next time I’ll tell you about the wine tasting gala this weekend (it’s at the gallery next door, they’re going to announce me as the new business on the block), let you know how much closer I am to making my own ice cream, let you in on my starting lineup of flavors, and tell you about my bold experiment of making a ‘beer float’.
Until then, remember, life’s short, eat ice cream.
Have a great weekend,
Jim