With favorite ice creams always available and new flavors added each season, Sugar Hill Creamery is enjoying success as a family-owned and operated ice cream shop. Based in Harlem, with a total of five locations across New York City, owner Petrushka Bazin Larsen believes every neighborhood should have at least one ice cream shop and it’s even better when the name of the ice cream maker is actually one of your neighbors.
Serving handmade, small batch ice cream, including non-dairy and vegan ice cream options, Bazin Larsen features flavors inspired by Caribbean and Midwestern cultures to make every taste (whether in a cup or a cone) an everlasting one! Even their homemade vanilla lightheartedly called, “Andy Griffith” is made from vanilla that comes from Ile Bourbon, now known as Reunion, which lies directly off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. And, wanting to properly represent Harlem, they have created an absolutely divine Flacko-inspired Rocky Road that is a spin on the classic mixing milk chocolate, toasted hazelnut, marshmallow, Oreo cookies, and graham crackers.
How did you get started and how quickly did you add each location?
In 2016, I had the idea to open an ice cream shop while I was on maternity leave with our second child. We were out of town eating at a food hall and I was craving a “dessert cap” to close out our delicious meal. After grabbing a cone at the small-batch ice cream shop, the idea hit me about opening an ice cream shop in our Harlem neighborhood. We funded our business using money from a few sources—our own, a crowdsourced campaign, and Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, which is a CDFI in our neighborhood.
How much of your business are ice cream orders, delivery, and catering vs customer walk-ins?
The majority of our sales come from in-store customers across our five New York locations across Harlem, Brooklyn, and the East Village, as well as customer sales in two of the cafes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where our ice cream is sold. Customers can also get our ice cream delivered when using the third-party apps which is a great way for people to try what we’re scooping if they can’t get into one of our stores. We do a lot of corporate catering, and of course, our fun and delicious ice cream cakes are a popular favorite and they can easily be ordered from our website.
How important is the seasonal menu change to your customer growth?
Keeping our menu fresh and new is very much a part of our business model but we recognize some customers have a favorite and want to order that flavor every time. So we keep five standing flavors in the case year-round and rotate the other seven based on the four seasons. Sometimes mid-season, we’ll also swap in a special flavor if we are doing a fun brand collaboration with another company or person from our neighborhood. We are always thrilled when customers rave about how much they love some of our most innovative flavors like “What’s Up Doc?,” a blend of handmade carrot cake mixed into a carrot cream cheese ice cream spiced with ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon or “Nunu’s Peach Cobbler,” which is made of pureed peaches with a dash of cinnamon and homemade crisp for a cobbler crunch.
How important has social media been to your branding and customer engagement?
Ice Cream just might be the happiest of foods and our traditional and innovative flavors are full of color and texture that come to life beautifully in pictures. Social media has been an integral part for us and our customers to show the different flavors and store displays while sharing their experiences. Across all social platforms, we have had the chance to show pictures and videos of the process, the product and effectively share the “why” behind our business.
Your commitment to the community is so strong that you have a donation request page and sponsor events. What are some of the programs you support?
We strongly believe that small food businesses must do their part to create a sense of belonging and place in any neighborhood. Being residents ourselves, we recognize the importance of giving back and contributing to our community. Some of our programs include organizing free and fee-based events that include a New Mom’s Group, First Saturday Art Classes led by Harlem-based teaching artists, telling the stories of our neighbors through our oral history project called Harlemites, and more.
What is your advice for aspiring restaurateurs?
Get educated on all aspects of the business and be sure to pay yourself and at the same time reinvest in the business to be prepared for large orders and surprise bills. Recognize the power of social media to build your brand by posting pictures of both the food and customers enjoying themselves to communicate taste and experience! Hire good people and let the not-so-good people go quickly. Most importantly, take care of yourself. Food service is hard work, but it brings joy and builds memories and is a privilege. Make sure to find ways to relax and pamper yourself during off times so you’ll always be refreshed and ready to go when it’s busy.
Tenyse Williams is an award-winning Brand Strategist, an Adjunct Instructional Specialist at Columbia University and George Washington University, and Founder & Chief Communications Officer of Verified Consulting, leading a team of digital marketing professionals amplifying awareness for their clients. Follow her on LinkedIn.
