2021 Industry Outlook The National Dipper asked several ice cream shop owners from around the country to look at their business for the past year and to look ahead to predict the future of the ice cream industry in 2021. This year the participants are: Robin Belleville, BG’s Frosty Fare, Bowling Green, OH; Patti Finnegan and Mary Ellen Faught, Niederfrank’s Ice Cream Factory, National City, CA; Jason Schoenherr, Erma’s Original Frozen Custard, Shelby Twp., MI; Sarah Skillin, The Ice Creamsmith, Dorchester, MA; Greg Smith, Ice Cream Station, Pompton Lakes, NJ; Donald Wagner, Papa Clyde’s, Spring Hill, FL. QUESTION: Please give a few sentences about yourself and your store. How long have you been in business? How many stores do you own? What do you serve? Etc. BELLEVILLE: My name is Robin Belleville, and I own BG’s Frosty Fare in Bowling Green, OH. We have a walk-up window, a drive thru, and a lobby. 2021 is my 10th season at the
helm; 15th for the store. I serve soft serve ice cream, hard dip ice cream (I purchase from two suppliers), soft serve yogurt, and a wide array of food (sandwiches, which I make most of the meat items, fried foods, etc.). FAUGHT & FINNEGAN: Patti Finnegan and Mary Ellen Faught became the third owners of Niederfrank’s Ice Cream Factory, located in National City, California. Established in 1948 by Elmer Niederfrank, we remain an old fashioned, all-natural, ice cream factory and retail store. SCHOENHERR: I am Jason Schoenherr, one of the owners and operate all 3 Erma’s Original Frozen Custard locations. Our menu is only frozen custard and Erma Ice soft serve. We’re open seasonally April 1 - October 31. We use modified batch freezers to create a weekly rotating flavor schedule mixing fruits, nuts, & candies into our soft serve custard. Erma’s has 25 unique layered parfaits, we roll our own waffle cones in house, mix ‘Explosions’ with a variety of fruits, nuts, and candies,
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and so much more. April 1, 2021 will be the beginning of our 80th season at our original Shelby Township, MI location. We have 2 additional locations in Warren & St. Clair Shores. SKILLIN: Our shop, The Ice Creamsmith, located in Dorchester, Massachusetts, was opened in 1976 by my parents after my dad found an ad for used ice cream-making equipment while he was looking for a new job. My husband, Chris, and I (Sarah) took it over in 2014, while we were expecting our second child. We had both worked there on and off since high school and Chris, who felt like he wouldn’t want to be in the construction business much longer, had always dreamed of taking it over. We have just the one location, and very little about it has changed since 1976. We make all our ice cream in-house: 10 classic flavors and 3 seasonal flavors that rotate monthly (plus a frozen yogurt and dairy-free sorbet) using the same recipes my parents developed - plus some new creations of our own! SMITH: My name is Greg Smith, together with my wife Song we have owned our store, the Ice Cream Station in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey for 28 years. We have only one store. We serve Gifford’s ice cream from Maine, homemade soups and sandwiches. We also sell custom made cakes. WAGNER: My name is Donald Wagner and I own Papa Clyde’s in Spring Hill, Florida. I’ve always been a self employed person. I came across an abandoned ice cream store and thought I could make it successful and now I’m entering my 31st year. QUESTION: Please tell us why and how you decided to open an ice cream store. BELLEVILLE: I was frustrated at my previous job for my boss not be-
The National Dipper
March/April 2021
