Crafting Ice Cream, Culinary Creations, and Community with Melinda Shaw

Intro: We are teaming up with the Southern Chester County Chamber of Commerce to host another networking event. Come connect and mingle with your Start Local community on Thursday, April 17, from 5-7 PM. We’ll be in Kennett Square at the Creamery. 

The Creamery is rated as one of the best beer gardens in the Philadelphia region according to Main Line Today. Join us for an evening of great conversation, food, and drink. As always, attendance is free, but registration is required. Head over to our website at [startlocal.co] to learn more and to RSVP. 

Liam Dempsey: Welcome to Start Local, where we talk with business owners, leaders of nonprofits, and other members of our community focused on doing business in and around Chester County, Pennsylvania. Each episode will provide insight into the local business scene and tell you about opportunities to connect with and support businesses and nonprofits in your local area.

Joe Casabona: The Southern Chester County Chamber of Commerce promotes trade, commerce, industry, and sustainable economic development while supporting a diverse and growing marketplace. The chamber is proud to partner with the Start Local podcast to raise the profile of businesses and nonprofits throughout Chester County. Learn more about the chamber at scccc.com. That’s scccc.com.

Liam Dempsey: Welcome to Start Local. I’m Liam Dempsey, and I’m recording the conversation today with my cohost, Erik Gudmundson. Hey. Hey, Erik. How are you today?

Erik Gudmundson:  I’m doing well. Spring is in the air, and I’m thinking about the Creamery of Kennett Square, because that’s where our networking event is gonna be coming up on April 17.

Liam Dempsey: Yeah. I’m really excited about that. We are partnering with the Southern Chester County Chamber of Commerce to host an event down there. So, you can head over to our website at [startlocal.co] Look for the big blue banner at the top that says register and get all the information there.

Erik Gudmundson: And not to be confused with the Creamery, we have our guest today. At the creamery, again, is a beer garden, a wonderful beer garden that’s outside, not a place that makes ice cream, but we’re here today to talk about some ice cream.

Liam Dempsey: Indeed, we are. We are speaking with Melinda Shaw. Melinda is the Founder and Owner of Hangry Bear Creamery. Hangry Bear Creamery is an ice cream foodie experience in Kennett Square. Welcome, Melinda.

Melinda Shaw: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Erik Gudmundson: Melinda, it’s a pleasure to have you on. Thanks for joining us today.

Liam Dempsey: Oh my. Ice cream. Let’s start there. Who doesn’t like to start with ice cream? 

The Hangry Bear Creamery is more than a simple ice cream shop. It’s a place where friends and family can gather to learn how ice cream is made and how the ingredients are sourced. It seems like this is in keeping with the farm-to-table movement. So the question is this. Was that your thought process in opening up Hangry Bear Creamery, and what is your commitment to that farm-to-table movement?

Melinda Shaw: Absolutely. I think being as a foodie myself and living in this area of Chester County is such a great resource for local businesses. So we knew going into this that we wanted to be a PA preferred product and use as many local resources as possible.

So, our ice cream mix that we start with comes from a dairy in Pottstown, PA. And we use local coffee from Landenburg, Crete, Cybers and Company. We use jams from LC Farms, which are in Oxford. And any other ingredients, we’re soon to partner with a local bakery for some inclusions as well as some baked goods. So it was always important for us to use as many local businesses farm-to-table, as well as small businesses.

Erik Gudmundson: Your shop offers a range of ice of core ice cream flavors, I should say. But they also have you also have an endless mix of ingredients that can be mixed in. So for example, we start with peanut butter ice cream and maybe mix in bacon, chocolate chunks, and caramel. We expect that the permutations of what your customers can create are pretty endless, or at least seemingly endless. We expect there’s also more than offering just a set range of flavors, more work involved. How did you decide to offer so many options, and how do you keep up with it?

Melinda Shaw: It’s the fun part of the process is making different ice cream flavors. I think we might find a source of ideas from a certain place and kinda run with it. So whether that’s being the seasons changing or a holiday or some kind of trend that’s in the dessert world that we can make that into ice cream. We, I use a lot of things from Philly as for an example because that’s where I grew up. So we have a tandy cake flavor that comes from candy cake because that’s reminiscent of childhood eating those candy cakes.

So a lot of that’s come from ideas that I’ve had probably my whole life of using for, of the flavors that we sell. But the flavors that people can create, they’re deciding when they’re here in our studio in the ice cream studio. So they’re not even, they may have an idea what they wanna make, or they might be inspired just from the list of ingredients that we have.

So, it’s their chance to be creative and make something that they’ve been thinking of or that strikes them as would taste good. So it’s giving those people the opportunity of what I get to do on a commercial level.

Erik Gudmundson: Well, I know I heard about the Hangry Bear Creamery when I was listening to WMMR a while ago, and I’m not sure I mean, a, that shows you’re definitely embracing the local region, but the hosts there were getting very, very excited and very happy. They really had nothing but amazing things to say about your ice cream. So how did you come to select the flavors that they were gonna use, at WMR?

Melinda Shaw: I think we chose our favorite flavors to showcase at that point of time, but we did also ask them for some feedback if they had some favorites, just so we could accommodate their requests. But we also brought some of our food up to them to sample being morning and maybe they wanted avocado toast or waffles instead of just ice cream for breakfast. So they were given a choice of options to have, but we definitely wanna show off and we’re actually returning to MMR next week on April 1, so we’re gonna bring some new flavors to try.

Liam Dempsey: Well, that’s very exciting. And gotta be honest, ice cream studio sounds way cool, even more cool than podcast studio. Well done, Melinda. You’re making me jealous. Go ahead.

Melinda Shaw: Oh, so I have to give credit to someone else. Gwen Calabrese from Calabrese Arts next Door. That was her idea. She has her creative art studio, and she’s like, well, it’s an ice cream studio. I was like, well, that’s perfect, and I’m gonna stop.

Liam Dempsey: Thank you, Gwen. Thank you, Gwen. 

Well, in your ice cream studio, you focus on educating your customers in the wider community about ice cream, its history, and the value and importance of sourcing quality local ingredients. So I’m gonna ask you, can you please share three fun facts about ice cream that our listeners definitely need to know?

Melinda Shaw: Absolutely. Ice cream is one of the most complicated foods that you can make. I think people don’t realize how much Science actually goes into the process of making ice cream and what you start with, and how it’s going to affect with the finished product. 

With that, I guess, second, it’s one of the most highly regulated foods in the United States. So the FDA, the PA of Health, the health department, depending on what state you’re in, you have many letter organizations coming to regulate your food and making sure that you’re actually selling ice cream. 

And third, I think being an ice cream snob, there’s a difference between frozen dessert and ice cream. Primarily, it has to do with the level of fat content that you have from heavy cream in your ice cream products. So, there’s some big brands making big changes that to save money that call their product frozen dessert instead of ice cream, and that is because you’re not getting as much of that good butter fat.

So you do get what you pay for with ice cream. So if you’re paying more for a product, it’s probably because they’re using more of the good natural cream.

Erik Gudmundson: And until you mentioned that, I had no idea. I was, you know, browsing the ice cream aisle of my local grocery store, and I know there’s vegan ice cream and people there are basically ice creams out there with people with special dietary needs, and I understand that’s not quite ice cream. 

But then just even in the regular ice cream section, there’s a lot of things that are for sale that are in fact not ice cream, going by, you know, everything you were just saying. So it’s been fascinating to read the labels after you pointed it out. And it’s, you don’t have to look at them hard, but you just assume it’s gonna be ice cream. But in fact, it’s not.

Melinda Shaw: That’s the beauty and the frightening part about marketing, I guess, is that you can make a label as gorgeous as possible and sell something that makes you think one thing, but it’s actually a little different. We do offer frozen desserts and nondairy options just because we’re very conscientious of different dietary requirements, and that’s great. And you can make a nondairy flavor in our ice cream studio as well. But we’re gonna call it a frozen dessert, not an ice cream.

Erik Gudmundson: Where we heard about that was when we attended the Southern Chester County Chamber of Commerce business after-hours event that you hosted. And we were blown away with the width and the breadth of your menu offerings. It wasn’t just ice cream and frozen desserts. It was also creative lunch and dinner meals that really step outside of what folks might expect from a creamery. What are the more popular items that you offer, and how they mix, with the ice cream, and how that create such an eclectic menu?

Melinda Shaw: So the food part came secondary to the ice cream part in creating Hangry Bear. So we wanted to have the ice cream studio first, but then during the ice cream process, there’s an amount of time that the ice cream has to harden in the minus 30 hardening cabinet because we’re making hard-dipped ice cream. So we had, of course, we need to feed them or have them stay longer, and entertain them. So we do that during the process. 

So the food park came secondary, but I think it pairs with this kind of fun family creative environment that we have. We didn’t want to have a table service type environment because we wanted people to comfortably bring their family and friends, their kids, especially. So being a mom myself, it was, okay, what can we have that is not too pressure for the fam too much pressure for the family? There’s kids’ options, and it’s casual. So you can stay as long or as little as you want. You can grab selfies to go. 

But then I also am a foodie, and I think the definition of the foodie is always trying to find something new and exciting. So, having a menu of things that I’ve kept save in my back pocket for the last twenty years that would be exciting and different, was important to keep foodies also interested in coming to Hunger Bear.

Liam Dempsey: Speaking of keeping people entertained, in particular keeping adults entertained, you offer a range of Pennsylvania ciders and liquor gear. And perhaps, at least from where I said most excitingly, boozy shakes to use the phrase on your menu. Boozy shakes, everybody. So let’s focus on those boozy shakes. Who gets to do the R&D on those, and what boozy shake is the most popular with your customers?

Melinda Shaw: Of course. Yeah. Myself and our over 21 staff definitely does some a bit of research.

Liam Dempsey: Of the regulators out there, it is the over-21 staff.

Melinda Shaw: Of the boozy shakes as well as the different cocktails and such that we had. So it is some R&D which is fun, and so we partner with Old Stone Cider. They’re in Lewisville, PA. So we’re kind of an adjunct of them, and we sell permanently their ciders. We knew we wanted to do boozy shakes, and we wanted to do boozy ice cream, except if you have more than 1% alcohol in your ice cream, it’s considered an adulterated product unless you have a lycra license. 

So we worked with them and we’re like, well, perfect. Cider pairs very well with ice cream, and we can do a lot of different things with cider and ice cream, and then also have boozy shakes. So we have, of course, an apple, Iron Man apple pie milkshake with the cider.

And then, the most popular would be the peanut butter parents peanut butter cup, booby shake with peanut butter whiskey or, the Grasshopper. So I think that’s just like an old school classic kind of drink name, but with our twist on it with boozy shakes. And they’re boozy. They are not for the faint of heart. That’s for sure.

Erik Gudmundson: I know lots of people were enjoying them at that event that we attended. That’s for sure. 

I wanna shift focus a little bit to you personally and your career, to give a little bit more context for everything that’s going into the Hangry Bear Creamery and all this ice cream knowledge that you bring to the table. 

You were hired by the University of Delaware to create a commercial creamery. Up to that point, you had no professional experience working with ice cream, and I wanna make sure that I understand that correctly. And then also tell us a little bit about what drew you to dive into ice cream in the first place.

Melinda Shaw: Sure. I think whether subconsciously or not, I started my first job when I was 14 was working for Cold Stone Creamery. So I actually made ice cream when I was 14 years old. I’m not sure if that was allowed, but it happened anyway.’’

So I studied hospitality management at Syracuse University. And, right after college, I went and worked for the Phillies with Aramark and did some big-time management of their food operations there, and kinda jumps from place to place as a chef manager type situation. I always knew that I wanted my own restaurants, but in your early twenties with college loans, you’re not suited to start that, obviously. 

But I did, at one point, end up at Villanova University, where I was a Chef Manager. It wasn’t quite exactly what I was looking for, but it did open the door for me to search in different places for opportunities that I wasn’t. And I just happened to stumble upon the University of Delaware Eudary Creamery manager position as they had started building a creamery, but didn’t have someone with the hospitality experience to open and manage a food service operation. 

So, blend that with a business plan presentation as well as made some ice cream to sweeten the deal, and was offered the job. But then, really, really fell in love with ice cream from there. So the university creamery managers throughout the country, whether that’s, you know, Penn State, Cornell, Mississippi, etcetera. There’s an association. So we became very quick friends because there’s not, there’s only about 20 in the country. And that kind of alliance really showed where the University of Delaware Creamery Program should go and what the goal should be, and how I can learn from them,m as it was such a great cohesive group of people willing to share information.

So that really made my love of food Science grow, and I knew exactly that I wanted to get more into the dairy Science and the food Science of ice cream, and not just kinda sell it.

Liam Dempsey: I would love to have a probably day or afternoon-long conversation with you about your first few weeks on that job.

Melinda Shaw: It was something.

Liam Dempsey: Yeah. It’s just, it’s just so amazing to think about entering a sector you know so little about, but let’s go. That’s just so amazing. That’s really, really impressive.

Melinda Shaw: I knew how I knew the management side of it. But making ice cream on the first day was myself, a student intern, the dean of the College of Agriculture at the time, and a soil scientist who was also the associate dean, trying to use this ice cream machine, and we’re literally just tossing ingredients into the ice cream with this mix and hope it gets freezing to the right temperature and getting ice cream splashed on the Dean and everything. And we’re just, it was a great time, but I’m like, okay. We need to get a program together, too, because this is fun, but it’s not gonna be productive per se over time. But, yeah, it was a good time.

Liam Dempsey: I love it. I love it. Folks from the northern end of our county here often talk about the Penn State Creamery, and Erik’s made it very clear to me that folks in the southern end of the county speak more highly of the University of Delaware’s Creamery. And with that context, we expect that most people won’t really appreciate that these creameries play an important role in educating students at the respective schools. Melinda, can you please talk about how the UD Creamery was engaged in education programs?

Melinda Shaw: Sure. Yes. So, Penn State Creamery is the Godfather of all university creameries. They’ve been around the longest, and have definitely been with the largest program in food Science and dairy Science. So it’s very respectable, and we learn, I’ve learned a lot from them and appreciate being able to do so. 

The goal of the UDairy Creamery, it kinda came business first, and then we backtracked to get the programs integrated, where the University of Delaware had the food Science program, but not necessarily as much dairy Science. But they did have a dairy farm and were looking to subsidize the dairy farm with sales of some additional product other than just selling bulk milk off. 

And that’s usually how those programs start was trying to make more money for dairy farms where milk can’t make much money off just milk anymore. But with that, I was, someone said one of the managers said to me from Cornell, they’re like, well, you have this cream being great, but what are you doing to teach students? And I’m like, well, that’s a great question. We need to start teaching students more.

So we were teaching about business, administration and entrepreneurship, and management and having interns and running the creamery, but not so much about the Science of creating the products itself. So, we started teaching or I’ve started teaching the Science of ice cream in 2014. And then we started to establish more of a presence and started the plan to create an actual dairy plant versus just a small creamery that was making ice cream from a mix that someone else is making. From there, it took a few years, but they have a big plant now and a few courses, which is great.

Erik Gudmundson: And part of that role, you were actually on the faculty there as an Adjunct Instructor. Is that correct?

Melinda Shaw: Yes. Somehow, they let me do that there. I was very gracious too, and it had to go to the board with the county. And as the food Science professors had quite, you know, their own busy loads, but being that I was able to get the background in ice cream and dairy Science pretty quickly, they were gracious enough to allow me to teach that course too. 

So we taught the Science. I taught the Science of ice cream, which was a three-credit undergraduate course. And, later on, once the dairy plant was established and we were pasteurizing milk and making cheese, myself and another professor and our assistant manager at the time, we had taught the Science and art of cheese making. 

We had also begun, which was for undergrads, and we began doing external learning through cooperative extension, where adults could sign up for an intensive three-day class on cheese making. So we did teach that once before COVID, and then it kinda stopped from there. But, hopefully, they’ll be able to bring that again, too.

Erik Gudmundson: That sounds like a great time to be a student. Absolutely great time to be a student.

Liam Dempsey: Yeah. I would have loved to take the Science of ice cream when I was in undergrad. That would have been fantastic.

Melinda Shaw: Yeah. And some departments were letting them count as their Science credits. So instead of chemistry one zero one, they could take the Science of ice cream. So, it was great.

Erik Gudmundson: I’m just thinking Science of ice cream versus calc-based physics two. Like… This is quite a quandary.

Liam Dempsey: Melinda, you have a number of revenue streams at Hangry Bear Creamery. Customers can come in for lunch or dinner. We’ve talked about that. Of course, they can come in for ice cream. And you have that wonderful gathering, making space, the ice cream studio, where customers can make their own ice cream. And through your website, they can actually order custom-made flavors, and you’ll ship them to them, directly to their home. 

And I think I saw correct me again if I’m wrong here, but I think I saw on social media that you’re working on an ice cream truck to take wonderful ice cream and food out into the community. But walk us through the breakdown of how you make money.  What offering is the most profitable for you?

Melinda Shaw: So I think, currently, right now, revenue-wise, we’re split a third to ice cream studio, food, and ice cream, as far as dollar-wise.

But when you look at people wise, the ice cream is high the most because we’re selling ice cream for, you know, $4.50 or to start. So we have more people coming in the door to purchase ice cream, but the revenues are across. 

Ice cream and the ice cream studio are always gonna generate more net than food is. The food industry and restaurant industry is incredibly low profit margins. So, having some ice cream and an ice cream studio does help with that. With the custom-made ice cream, it’s something I wish I would take off more, but it hasn’t quite got that viral niche yet to figure out how to get people to buy that. That’s a little tougher. But the ice cream truck is coming. My husband, right, this actual second is trying to finish that up so we can have it out by April.

Erik Gudmundson: That’s exciting. Well, come on up to Northern Chester County anytime you want. So, we’ll make this happen. 

We’ve heard from several employers over a number of our episodes that finding the right employees for the service industry can be a challenge in Chester County. That’s in no small part because of the lack of affordable housing. Is hiring and retaining the right people a challenge for you?

Melinda Shaw: Absolutely. I think hiring and retention in the food service industry is very difficult and more difficult than it was five years ago because so many people from COVID left the food industry to go find careers elsewhere. I think the housing industry is specifically in Chester County is very challenging as I was thinking about this too, because we don’t even have but one employee that doesn’t live with other people. So to have your own apartment or have your own house, is very challenging with the rates and the county nowadays that to work in the food industry and afford that is really not possible.

So most of our employees and we we hire over 18 because of our liquor license. They’re between 18 and 30 years old. None of them is living alone. They’re or they’re not living with a partner. They’re living with roommates or they’re living with parents, because it’s not yet affordable to find anything in the area.

Liam Dempsey:   In advance today, you and I spoke about how you obtained a small business loan to buy equipment, lease a space you’re in, and cover your startup charges. In that conversation, you said that if you could do it over again, you might have taken a larger loan to help you cover the initial operating expenses, which in that conversation, I think you shared were your salaries. Can you share your thinking with us today?

Melinda Shaw: Sure. So and I think that’s it’s like I guess it’s my PSA if anyone wants to start a business is don’t neglect the working capital. We did. We had a loan and we wound up, for the construction that we’re in a new construction facility. So a lot of it was equipment, and the fit out, as well as just supplies and such that we need.

And we wound up expanding the space, but not necessarily expanding the loan as much to include that working capital. And I think some of the banks may see that you have some working capital, but not realizing that it should be at least six months of your operating expenses, and that puts that at a very high dollar amount. And I wish we extended it a little bit back to that because we also open in winter, so we really needed that extra working capital.

So it’s something that you’re like, oh, well, I can cover everything. I can cover my construction, and I have my equipment covered, county, cost covered. But what about paying people for when you don’t have revenue in January? So it’s definitely one thing that should not be neglected in a new business.

Erik Gudmundson: What was the process of securing that small business loan like? I’m curious if you had to figure it all out on your own, or did you find somewhere where you got some good help to work up the right loan solutions for you and your ideas?

Melinda Shaw: Sure. So, with finding the loan process, I did communicate a little bit with SCORE and the Chester County SCORE. They helped with just kinda, you know, this is what you’re gonna have to have. I was already familiar with the business plan process, thankfully, but they do have some really great outlines available. And they’ll schedule mentors to meet with you to go over those documents to make sure you have what you need.

I wound up,making building a relationship with Fulton Bank, where they also were looking over some documents and were very helpful because they knew the SBA loan process. And being a startup with not much extra capital, and I was gonna have to borrow most of it, SBA is definitely the way to go for it’s less risk for the banks, of course. So that they were very helpful.

And looking at my business plan, looking at financial projections that I created, and actually said no to my first location that I had in mind, which was fine because in retrospect, it would not as good as Kenneth. But then we’re very helpful with the process and being realistic at looking at the numbers and you know, you don’t have enough foot traffic at this location. But they were also giving suggestions of, you know, where else I could look.

So ultimately, we ended up in Kennett, which was the right decision. But it was nice to have some resources through SCORE. If I needed more information, they’ll go walk you through business plan creation as well. But without a business plan, you’re actually, you can’t get anywhere, so you county start there first.

Liam Dempsey: Thank you.

We remember learning about your then-new creamery long before we actually met you through the Southern Chester County Chamber of Commerce. I remember Erik telling me that he had heard about you on an MMR, as we talked about. And certainly at a networker noon event through the chamber, I remember seeing you from across the room introducing yourself, and you knew Creamery, and my ears perked up. Ice cream?

But I have to say both Erik and I were really surprised at how much how much press coverage and real hubbub, there was not just in Kennett Square, but in across Chester County in the wider Philadelphia region when you when you opened your your new ice cream place, and I’m doing it a disservice by calling it an ice cream place as we’ve been talking about in this conversation, it’s much more than that. But how to, what do you attribute all that kind of excitement? Why was everyone so excited about a new Curry Marie opening in Kennett Square?

Melinda Shaw: I think it’s a few factors. 

One factor being that anyone can write a press release. And I decided, well, I’m gonna write my own press release. And who am I gonna send it to? Everyone I know. So I wrote it and I thankfully, I had some experience with that from UD, but wrote up a professional press release, had a few people read it, edit it, revise it, etcetera. And then became a member of the Chamber of Commerce way before we were open and asked through them for some resources, as you know, who to send it out to, as well as getting connected with the Chester County tourism board. They were a big help a lot with assisting with, you know, who to send it to, and they were to send it out. And it’s kinda like you just put it out in the world and hope that people grab on to it, and I was very grateful that they did.

The Kennet collaborative too was also very helpful with finding some resources to send it to and just kinda push it out there. So, we created some hype on social media, but I don’t, I think it was a combination of that with with just getting just getting your information out to whoever is gonna take it and prove

Liam Dempsey: Yeah. I love that. Just taking the bulldog back. By the way, I’ll do it myself, please. Who can help? Thank you.

Melinda Shaw: Yeah. I have a habit of doing that.

Erik Gudmundson: That seems to be working for you. 

Kenneth Square has such a strong reputation of being a hub to many delicious restaurants and eateries, and now you’re a part of that scene. What’s the culture like among restaurant and business owners? Is it competitive, collaborative, some of both? Why did you pick Kennett? Is it because of that community?

Melinda Shaw: I think it is some of both, both competitive and collaborative. I think there’s, it’s a really great mix that there’s some really long-standing restaurants that have been here over the test of time.

And then you have some newer or newer ownership coming in with some owners, you know, my age per se, that are or they’re just new and getting started. So I think there’s some that just like what they’re doing and, you know, they’re okay with that, and others that really wanna get into partnerships, which is really exciting too because that offers some more fun creative flavors for me to try out. 

I think what really struck me or really convinced my husband and I that we wanted to go to Kennett was actually being at the Kennett Creamery. We went to the beer garden one day, and we’re just looking around, looking at all these people, and we’re like, of course, this is where we need to be because this is kind of our hub of Southern Chester County. It’s we would have to drive, we live in Landenbur,g to drive through Kennett to get to Weschster and still that’s a bit further away. 

So if we wanted to go anywhere for food or dinner or hang out or whatnot, we’re going to Kennett. So with this idea and being with how unique the ice cream studio was, we needed to be in a more populous area, but also an area that we thought could really appreciate that and the amount of families that are at the Kennett Creamery was the target market that we’re looking for too. It’s that, okay. We have everything for moms, dads, and uncle kids. So, we wanted to be focused on that community.

Liam Dempsey: We expect that for your business, social media is both a blessing and perhaps, so is the marketing consultant, a bit of a curse as well. It’s certainly a wonderful way to share your ice cream creations, your food creations, and your offerings, but also to engage directly with your customers. Yet we know it requires real amounts of time to do it right. How do you feel about social media as a restaurateur? How does that sit with you?

Melinda Shaw: Unnecessary evil, I think. Yeah. I think for any restaurateur, it is a love-hate relationship because most people that are running the businesses just don’t have time to do it because it is such a huge time commitment. 

And there’s people that do it well, or there’s people that try, like me. We’ve tried interns too from schools and other people, and it’s I think you do get what you pay for with social media to an extent with if you have someone making professional content, it’s gonna look really great. But then you also cannot predict when something is going to go viral or what. 

For example, we had a couple come into a date night studio session two weeks ago, and they just posted a video on TikTok. They were new, new foodies, starting out this brand new TikTok series. It was their fourth video ever posted, and it has over almost half a million views right now. So it’s, what predicts that out algorithm. I have no idea. And it’s like, you just get lucky sometimes, and that’s the hate part of social media is that it’s very hard to predict what is gonna do well and what’s not gonna do well. And that’s a whole different Science that someone else studies that I can’t wrap my head around. There’s no space for me to study that right now. But, it is necessary because that’s where that’s kind of their go to place for information and to see what’s new and exciting. So it’s still necessary.

Liam Dempsey: I wonder with things like that TikTok video with the half a million views, at least anecdotally, are you able to determine whether or not that is putting cash into your pocket? Is that be bringing people into the studio? Are they saying, oh, we heard about you on TikTok?

Melinda Shaw: Yeah. Absolutely. We, I think, doubled or almost tripled the amount of date night studio sessions that we had, and I could track from the sales and views on our booking website through our ice cream studio. I think on a week, we averaged between 200 views on our booking website. And when that video went out, it jumped to 800. So it was significant the amount of people that were getting pushed to our website just from that, which is amazing. Very grateful.

Erik Gudmundson: The fact that you’re hosting date nights makes me think of something here. And that is that the restaurant industry has a reputation for long hours, busy weekend shifts, and very hard work. If you’re hosting date nights at the restaurateur, you’re probably not hosting date nights with your husband, unfortunately. So we expect that all this activity is gonna make other interests, hobbies, and the like a real challenge. How, what’s been your experience? And, you know, the cliched thing is to say work-life balance, but how do you really get the two to function together?

Melinda Shaw: Oh, for a restaurateur, work-life balance when retire, maybe. It’s very hard. 

Primarily, you have to find other employees that you can trust. So I am lucky that I do have a few that I’m comfortable and they can manage it without me, though I’m a phone call away, of course. It is business. Weekend shifts are just your busiest time, and date nights are Thursday and Friday nights. And I do host some of those myself because I do like the adult parties as much as the kids’ parties are fun. It’s nice to nerd out about ice cream Science to adults.

But it does affect everything. So I think the balance right now is finding mostly not having my son cry when I leave the house on weekends because I have to go to work. It just tears your heart in half. So it’s finding a balance of spending time with him. The hobbies that I used to have are put to the wayside for a while, hoping that they’ll be there when I have time to, but it’s not even a thought. It’s trying to balance family first. 

And then I hope to be able to add the hobbies back in that I did have, that my husband wants me to join him again doing. But, it’s very yeah. It is tricky. It is tricky. But when you know that you are supposed to be doing something, and thankfully, when your family also knows and can support that, then, it’s they offer an exception to not doing what you used to do. 

But we also had many conversations beforehand, knowing that it was going to be like this. So the expectations were put in place first. But, yeah, I was a competitive rifle shooter with my husband, and I do miss doing that a lot. So he gets to go, and I don’t. But maybe next year.

Liam Dempsey: Wow. I just wanna explore that for a whole hour now. But…

Melinda Shaw: Yeah. That’s a whole another world.

Liam Dempsey: Well, it’s certainly very clear from your tone of voice and the way you’re speaking about this, and we have video seeing each other as we talk, that you’re very passionate about what you’re doing, and you love what you’re doing. And it’s clear that that’s a sacrifice that you and your loved ones are willing to make. So, congrats to you. Not everybody can do that. Well done.

Melinda Shaw: Yeah. Thank you. It is, I’m very fortunate. It’s I see some people, you know, even some of my employees, be like, well, I don’t know what I wanna do in the future. I don’t know what I do. And it’s very lucky that I kinda knew, and I’m grateful for that. But now it’s just trying to maintain, I guess, different challenges.

Liam Dempsey: Indeed. Indeed. Well, I’m gonna ask a challenging question here, especially for someone who owns her own ice cream studio. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Can you even answer that question?

Melinda Shaw: It changes just because I get so bored with food. And not in a bad way, just that I can’t eat the same thing every day. So, like, my husband, I can make a pot of jambalaya and he’ll eat that for five days straight, and he’s happy. I can’t do that. I’ll have it once and I’m done.

Right now, I think it’s Cara Needs More Coffee, which is named after my sister. And it’s coffee ice cream with mini marshmallows, chocolate chunks, and biscuit cookie butter. So it’s kind of just a delectable coffee flavor.

Liam Dempsey: Yes. It is.

Melinda Shaw: We want to see what we’re bringing back, our Bonnie’s, bourbon peach cobbler, so that’s that’s up there too. Anything with bourbon in it is gonna be my favorite. So…

Liam Dempsey: Anything with peach in it is gonna be my favorite.

Erik Gudmundson: I’m getting really hungry. So, I’m glad this episode is drawing to a close here because I need to run out and get some food, I think. 

But, Melinda, tell us about a business or nonprofit in Chester County that more folks should know about? That’s one of our other tough questions, I think.

Melinda Shaw: Oh, I think I would talk about my neighbor here, would be I mentioned, Gwen from Calabrese Arts. She’s got a beautiful space, but I think people don’t realize how much she’s doing for the community and for kids.

So they do plays. They, for all ages. They also have private music rooms and do lessons. They do voice lessons, songwriting, dance, and, you know, different adult nights as far as salsa and line dancing. And she’s extremely passionate about what she’s doing too, and how the arts and how being creative can affect children’s lives and how it can open doors to the future they might not realize that they have. So I think that she is also new. So I think, just opened a month before I did, but was at a previous space before. So I think we’re in this little Kennet Point area that we are, We have a lot of creative outlets with Chester Clay and Calabrese, and then myself.

So I think, anything that can be creative and allow you to use that outlet and for good instead of evil, I guess, and getting involved in something fun for children and to explore what they might not know is a good business of support.

Liam Dempsey: Well, we’ll be sure to include a link to Calabrese Arts over on our website at startlocal.co. Thank you for talking about that, for sharing that. 

So we’ve talked about a lot about ice cream. We’ve talked about employment, and Erik’s gonna go out and look for some food, but I might wanna make ice cream. Are you currently hiring? And if so, where can folks learn about the available positions within your business?

Melinda Shaw: So we will be hiring someone to help us with our ice cream truck. We did just hire a couple people to help, with host suit too. So, I think sending a resume to info at hangrybearcreamery.com best. We do hire over 18, but with the summer season coming up, we’ll be looking to fill a few more positions as well.

Erik Gudmundson: One final question for you today. How can the community support Hangry Bear Creamery?

Melinda Shaw: I think just by coming in, but telling your friends too. I mean, with all the marketing and social media and everything we have, still, I believe word-of-mouth is the strongest because you’re saying, hey. You gotta come here with me and try, Hangry Bear is gonna do much more wonders than a social media post. But I think, yeah, supporting us would just bring your families and friends and to talk about us and talk about what a great experience you had.

Erik Gudmundson: Excellent. That’s a fantastic answer.

Melinda Shaw, Owner and Founder of Hangry Bear Creamery, aside from maybe connecting with you at the creamery in Kennett Square, which is not Hangry Bear on April 17, but could be Hangry Bear if you wanna make it a two-for-one visit in Kennett that day. Where can listeners connect with you to learn more about your delicious snacks?

Melinda Shaw: They can visit our website at hangrybearcreamery.com, where we have our menus. You can order food online. For pickup, takeout, come in and visit us. If you would like to book an ice cream studio session, then our booking page is also online. It has a calendar of the most real-time dates and, days available and times. 

But if you wanna connect with me, I’m probably here. So just come in and say, hey. Or book a session. I do still like to do a lot of the studio sessions as learned that teaching and really talking about ice cream is really it’s me happy, I guess.

Liam Dempsey: It’s making me very happy too. Melinda, thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate it.

Melinda Shaw: Thank you. My pleasure. Thank you for speaking with me.

Erik Gudmundson: Thank you also to my cohost, Liam Dempsey. I’m Erik Gudmundson.

The Start Local podcast is published every two weeks. We invite you to subscribe to Start Local using your favorite podcast app or ask your smart speaker to play the Start Local podcast. You can also visit the Start Local website at [startlocal.co] for show notes, including links mentioned on this show and summaries of past episodes. 

We hope you join us for the next episode. Thank you for listening.