Ample Hills to Hold 'Sell-Out' Celebration Saturday

One year after opened—and then —the artisan ice cream shop is marking the occasion with a “Sell Out Celebration” on Saturday.

In Ample Hills’ case, running out of ice cream was a good thing. As the first shop in , instead of from a “dairy mix,” the eatery built up an eager foodie fan base before it even opened its doors. Between the time  and when they finally ran out, Smith went through 125 gallons, about twice as much as Smith had expected. ()

In celebration of the closing, tomorrow, May 26, the shop will sell increasingly discounted ice cream over the day, until it becomes free, as Ample Hill’s Facebook page explains:

We'll start the day with all 24 flavors, when a flavor sells out, the price of a single scoop will decrease. We'll do this all day until the ice cream is FREE.

Come early before your favorite flavor sells out, or spin the wheel of destiny and come at night and see how low the price is and which flavors we have left.

Smith said the idea to intentionally sell out as part of the celebration was a “collective effort.”

“We wanted to do something that reminded people of how we came to be, and we knew we wanted to give away ice cream for our birthday. But we didn’t want to just do free ice cream cones—Ben and Jerry’s has been doing that for years,” Smith said. “Then one of our employees came up with the idea that we should try to sell out.”

The shop is also running a contest in which you can guess which four flavors will sell out first and which will sell out last. The winner gets two free scoops of ice cream a day for a week. (If multiple people guess correctly a random winner will be chosen and the rest will get a runner up prize, Smith said.)

You can enter your guess on Ample Hill’s Facebook page or at the shop. The contest closes when the shop opens at noon on Saturday, May 26. Also enter your guesses in the comments below.

Last year, the were breakfast trash, black cow float, sunshine on my chocolate, and bubblegum, but that won’t help you because all those flavors have been discontinued.

Visitors to the shop can also try out the shop's ice cream-churning bicycle, and eat the resulting ice cream with toppings free, and from 7 to 10 p.m. a steel drum band will perform.

Let Patch save you time. Get local stories like this delivered right to your inbox or smartphone everyday with our free newsletter. Fast signup here.

Smith and is planning a second celebration on June 10, the anniversary of Ample Hill’s re-opening. Plans for that day’s festivities are still in the works, but Smith said it will be “something completely different.”

Reflecting on the first year, Smith said he never regretted his decision to go the made-from-scratch route, despite the need for in-store pasteurization. 

“I think one of the reasons we’ve been successful is because of the authenticity of everything made from scratch. If we had bought the mix, yes it would have been easier but we probably wouldn’t have had the response we had,” he said.

Asked about expanding the shop’s offerings, Smith said that instead, he’s considering opening a second branch. (Let us know if the comments where you’d like to see it open … Franklin Avenue anyone?)

And as for for those of you out of town this weekend, there’s always 2013.

“Every year we’ll try to have a sell-out competition,” Smith said. “That’ll be our thing.”

Ample Hills Creamery, 623 Vanderbilt Avenue at St. Marks, 347-240-3926, is open Sun-Thurs. noon to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday noon to 11 p.m.