Flooded With Customers, Ample Hills Creamery Runs out of Ice Cream and Closes Doors
Artisan ice cream shop owner hopes to re-open in about a week.
Four days after opening, Ample Hills Creamery has run out of ice cream and has closed its doors until the shop can make more.
“It’s a nice validation, but I planned for a lot more moderation,” said owner Brian Smith.
The store – the first in Brooklyn to make ice cream completely from scratch in the shop, instead of from a “dairy mix” of pre-pasteurized milk, cream, sugar and eggs – built up an eager foodie fan base in the months before it opened.
And since fans decended on the shop on opening day Wednesday, the shop has gone through 125 gallons of ice cream, about twice as much as Smith expected. (See photos of opening day here.)
Despite making more during the week, by last night, the shop was down to four flavors: breakfast trash, the root beer-flavored black cow float, sunshine on my chocolate, an orange cheesecake flavor with a chocolate swirl, and bubblegum. He sold them at half price until all that was left was bubblegum, which he gave away. By 10 p.m. it was all gone.
Smith has hired more staff to up the ice cream production, and plans to reopen soon with the full 24 flavors at the counter, and “multiple, multiple tubs” in the back, he said.
Before re-opening, Smith also wants to have the ice cream cakes and frozen ice cream drinks ready (salted caramel and fudge, yum!) and the outdoor seating in place.
“We’re going to make sure that we have everything that we should have had,” the first time, he said.
There will also be a few innovations, including smaller-sized kids cones, and several dairy and egg free flavors including a lemon-ginger sorbet and “something coconut-milk based,” Smith said.
He’ll also be rolling out maple bacon and cinnamon flavors and retiring poor bubblegum after its lackluster showing.
So when will the shop re-open? Weeks? Months? After missing several opening date deadlines the first time around, Smith would prefer to keep it vague.
“I’m hoping it’s more like a week, but I’m not going to commit to a day,” he said.
As for why he ran out of ice cream the first time, Smith said he just didn't expect so many customers. "It's overwhelming, the support," he said.
“I planned for failure, for moving back in with mom and dad, but I didn’t plan for this degree of response,” he said.
In the meantime, don't forget about Blue Marble Ice Cream, just a few blocks away on Underhill and Sterling.
Ample Hills Creamery, 623 Vanderbilt Avenue at St. Marks, (will be) open Sun-Thurs. noon to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday noon to 11 p.m. Phone number not yet available.
Lee Brown
11:09 am on Monday, May 30, 2011
I love your articles about Ample Hills, and the photos are wonderful. I appreciate how supportive you've been about the business. I've been able to keep up with the goings on of Ample Hills through your articles since Brian has been too busy to keep me posted - I'm his mom. Thank you.
Amy Sara Clark
11:16 am on Monday, May 30, 2011
Lee,
Glad to help! Please tell Brian to make more Salted Cracked Caramel soon. I'm going into withdrawal! Now that I know you're reading the coverage, I'll make sure to include more photos of your adorable grandchildren as well.
- Amy
Adam Rabiner
5:38 pm on Monday, May 30, 2011
That's the flavor I tried as well as I and my family contributed to depleting his stores. Great flavor, thanks for recommending it. Looking forward to trying others as well. The demise of bubble gum is no great loss.
AspreyJandMaeri
11:47 am on Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Maeri and I aren't business people but a couple of things ring true here:
1) It might be a good idea to double stock the stuff that's selling. That's just logic. But another point many of us may not have come across is...
2) It might be hard to stack and stack and stack ice cream reserves and still keep them fresh, which is what Ample Hills is making their name for (among other things, most notably awesome ice cream.) With that in mind, it could be tough not to run out of fresh ice cream with so much popularity.
Brian said he prepared for failure. Now that's he's got a taste of stardom, I bet we'll see a new approach to selling ice cream - more befitting of the rock star Ample Hills is. He'll be at work today in Steven Tyler tights, Bootsie Collins glasses, and a Flavor Flav clock.