Whatever Happened to the Ice Cream Lady?: The Ice Cream Recipes and Inspiration Behind Ice Cream Place

By Chantae Fowler

After officially retiring my business in 2022, I quickly realized that people were not ready for me to retire. Unbeknown to most, I physically could not go on, no matter how much money, pleading, and encouragement I was faced with.

The next best way for me to continue my ice cream business was to share my ice cream recipes and the different inspirations behind each flavor.

I personally know there is a story behind each flavor, and now, everyone else will as well.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 20, 2024
• ISBN: 9798893150667

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Whatever Happened to the Ice Cream Lady?

The Ice Cream Recipes and Inspiration Behind Ice Cream Place

Chantae Fowler

Copyright © 2024 Chantae Fowler

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2024

ISBN 979-8-89315-041-4 (pbk)

ISBN 979-8-89315-066-7 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Introduction

Spoon Full

Vanilla

Chocolate

Strawberry

Cookies-n-Cream

Butter Pecan

Lemon

Banana

Banana Nut

White Walnut

Butter No Pecan

Toffee Turtle

Strawberry Crunch

Eggnog

Mouth Full

RumChata

Mint

Mint Chocolate Chip

Peppermint

Uncle Calvin's Sweet Potato Pie

Love's Pecan Pie

Priscilla's Carrot Cake

Vanilla Brownie

Black Cherry

Cherry Nut

Pineapple Coconut

Ambrosia

Almond Joy

Coconut

Belly Full

Raspberry

Halle Triple-Berry

Lemon Berry

Chocolate Mint

Chocolate Mint Chocolate Chip

Lemon Crunch

Strawberry Cordial

Chocolate Crunch

Blueberry

Blueberry Crunch

Chocolate Brownie

Brownie with Nut

Milleon's Mix

Morris Chest-Nutty

Ice Cream Wasted

Chocolate Hazelnut

Peanut Butter

Crunchy Peanut Butter

Sarah's Swirl

Coffee

Colombian Dark Roast

Mocha

Mocha Double Nut

German Chocolate

Pumpkin

Rum Raisin

Super Woman

Vanilla Chai

That One Guy's Cookie Dough

Greg's Rocky Road

In February 2022, I had become so ill that it forced me to come to the conclusion that it was time for me to call it quits and move on to the next chapter of my life and retire Ice Cream Place LLC.

I started Ice Cream Place in 2003 and became licensed in 2009. I started with the simple goal of making people happy because I've never seen anyone upset eating ice cream.

My ultimate goal was to have a cute little shop where I was able to sell my ice cream and baked goods and also be able to bake on-site so that the smell would bring people in from all around. I accomplished that even if it was limited to a military base. Unbeknownst to me, most of my customers outside of the military base were current or former military, so building my clientele and word of mouth came with ease.

I'd be lying if I said the road to that shop was easy though, but true to me, I made it look easy and took my business to the unimaginable, despite friends and family who literally laughed at me trying to open an ice cream business in Michigan.

I started doing vendor events because I really wanted to see if I had something. I guess I did because I went from asking to do vendor events to folks requesting that I do their event. Then doing an event led to a gentleman buying my ice cream that ultimately led to me getting licensed and getting into my first grocery store.

Just so you know, I didn't think I was ready for my ice cream to be sold in grocery stores, but rest assured, Mr. Hooks told me I was. When he asked for my barcodes to load into his system for my ice cream and I didn't have any, he put me in contact with Mr. Wilson, which made sure I had them. I was happy for the connection, but in my head, I was scared all out.

After my first demo at Mr. Hooks' grocery store, Metro Foodland, with me selling out of several flavors and restocking them every other week, I had the fever and wanted to know if I had what it takes to get into other grocery stores. Not just any grocery stores, but I wanted to be in stores that were in areas that my customers were in and upheld the same standards that I did when it came to quality.

My background is in sales, and I'm good at it, so if I got the meeting, I got in the store. Not to brag, but it is what it is, and twelve chains later, I can't be too off. If you're saying twelve grocery chains is nothing, then I have two words for you: Don't Hate!

Next, I started doing farmers markets because why shouldn't people who go to farmers markets be happy as well knowing they can buy great tasting ice cream while they shopped for farm fresh fruits and vegetables. After all, I was using some of those same fruits and vegetables in my ice cream.

Then, I started catering because who else was catering ice cream at the time, plus my customers looked like the bee's knees having these cute ladies all uniformed up, being extra friendly and professional, scooping up the best ice cream in the world to their guests. Yes, I said, In the world.

All in all, I was asked to do concerts, weddings, confirmations, birthday parties, and, yes, even funerals. I've shipped ice cream from as far west as California, as far east as New York, and as far south as Florida. But with all this success, I still only really truly wanted my cute little shop, where I made everything on-site and made folks happy.

In 2018, after doing an event at Selfridge Air National Guard, I was finally given the opportunity to open my shop, and I jumped at it. I actually liked being on the base, and it came with a ton of business perks.

The only issue I have is that maybe it took too long for my dream to come true. I messed around, and my body started waiving the white flag, and I had to call it quits sooner than I would have liked to. Not to mention, I was at an age where you have to start listening to your body, so I called it quits before my body decided to drop-kick me in the throat.

I said all that to say I had nineteen great years in business, and I wanted to thank all of my supporters for allowing me to put smiles on their faces all across the country.

Thank you!

About the Author

I'd like to dedicate this book to my family, friends, associates, and everyone who supported me through the years by buying my ice cream, hiring me out to cater ice cream at their events, being taste-testers, unknowingly helping me come up with new flavors, referring me to other people to buy and support my ice cream business, and volunteering to help me when you saw I was drowning in orders and events but knew I was too stubborn to ask for help; to the grocery stores that sold my ice cream; to the men and women of the military who entrusted me to open up my first brick-and-mortar specialty ice cream shop on one of their bases; the city of Romulus, which gave me unlimited access to their commercial kitchen to not only make my ice cream but enable me to get a license; and finally to the Taylor Rotary, who supported and believed in me and my products and genuinely only wanted to see me succeed.

I would be remiss if I didn't thank a very special girlfriend whose friendship dates all the way back to college. Whether near or far, she always supported me no matter what she had going on. When I fell ill and had to close my business down and told her I was writing a book that would contain the stories behind each ice cream flavor, she was excited for me, and after reading a few of the stories, she stayed on top of me to finish. Once I finished the book, ever so often, she would ask me what was the holdup with getting my book published, and I told her I was waiting on the money to come in as a result of my illness.

After a year of waiting, she randomly asked me if I was still going to get the book published, and I told her yes. Out of nowhere and to my surprise, a few days after asking me that question, we were on the phone, having our normal conversations and just generally catching up with each other, when I received a text message from my bank. Normally, I wouldn't check my messages while on the phone, but for some reason, I did that time. My good friend had deposited the full amount needed to publish my book, and it brought me to tears.

Kia M. Bonner-Cook, please take a bow, because ultimately, this book is dedicated to you for your steadfast belief and support of me. Without that belief, this book would still be sitting on my computer, waiting for my big windfall to happen so it could be published. You didn't ask me for anything other than my friendship and an occasional ear to vent to and to get this book published, and for that, I am forever grateful and in your debt more than you will ever know.

Introduction

The story of how Ice Cream Place was born is really quite simple. I wish I could say I had an old family recipe that was handed down to me over the years, but that's not the case.

In 2003, while working in corporate America, I found myself surrounded by unhappy people. One day after being confronted by one of these very same unhappy people, I decided that I wanted a career that made people happy.

Even after going home for the day, it was still on my mind. I went to bed and woke up, and after some great thought, I came up with the idea of not only selling ice cream but making it from scratch. I had been taught how to cook from scratch when I was younger, so I figured making ice cream couldn't be that much harder. I had never seen anyone upset eating ice cream, so I just assumed homemade ice cream would be that much better.

The next day, after my revelation, I spoke to my assistant and told her that I was on a mission to find the perfect career where everyone who worked for me as well as my customers would be happy, but before I could reveal my new passion, she immediately cut me off and said, Well, when you find it, let me know so I can work there too.

I paused for a minute and then blurted out, Ice cream! She looked at me in disbelief before rolling her eyes and leaving my office. Her response was all the motivation I needed.

Making ice cream was something I had never done before but I had become determined to do and do well. I decided that I wanted my ice cream to mimic the flavor of homemade ice cream similar to what my grandfather may have had as a child growing up in Mississippi.

My grandfather was also the inspiration behind the name Ice Cream Place because growing up, he would always say, Let's go to the ice cream place, even though each of the ice cream places around had names, but it didn't matter to him. Dairy Queen was the ice cream place, Mickey's was the ice cream place, Frosty Boy was the ice cream place, and basically no matter what ice cream establishment we went to, he called it the ice cream place.

I had to start somewhere and needed several people to be my test subjects, who weren't just going to say my ice cream tasted good when it didn't.

I had a staff meeting every Friday, and since I had instilled in them to not just be good enough, I thought why not use them without their knowledge of why I was bringing homemade ice cream and cookies to our weekly meetings.

I would go through several different staffs over the years, but one thing remained constant: after five long years of testing, I was determined that I put out a stellar product. Every week, I would ask how the ice cream and cookies were, and they would always say,