Kitchen Garden is getting into the ice cream business
Eryn Dion
News Staff Writer
TEMPLETON After years of serving world-renowned Finnish coffee bread and Scandinavian almond cupcakes, the Kitchen Garden will soon be dishing out a new delectable treat as owner Joyce Dossett prepares to open her newest addition — an ice cream bar — in the coming weeks.
“It’s like starting a brand-new business,” Ms. Dossett said looking at the cloth curtain separating her store from the ice cream bar. “It really is.”
Ms. Dossett admits that when she started on this venture she had somewhat unrealistic expectations about the amount of time and work that goes into starting up an ice cream parlor from scratch.
“I thought, ‘OK. Ice cream. You get freezers. You get ice cream. You get scoopers and off you go,’” she commented. “It’s not like that.”
What started as just freezers and ice cream turned into a full-scale renovation of the back room, with Ms. Dossett going through about a dozen different floor plans before settling on the current configuration. Then there were new lights to be installed, in addition to the freezers, which required seven new outlets and visits from the electrical and health inspectors.
Then there were the supplies: three different types of cones, two sizes of spoons, cups, napkins, napkin dispensers, toppings — the list was almost endless.
“We want to do it right,” Ms. Dossett said. And of course, there was the most important decision of all — what brand of ice cream to serve. For that, Ms. Dossett turned to another small outfit and Massachusetts staple, Bliss Bros. Dairy out of Attleboro, who have been in business for almost a century. The company even dispatched one of its long-term employees to walk Ms. Dossett through the process and offer valuable advice.
“What nice people,” Ms. Dossett said. “They were so helpful. He told me all the things I needed to have.”
News staff photo by ERYN DION
Owner Joyce Dossett said her new ice cream bar is making progress and should open this season.
Ms. Dossett also turned to another family business for equipment and priceless advice, purchasing the freezers, ice cream scoops, and even an antique pie case from Don and Elaine McKay, owners of the former Calico & Creme restaurant in Hubbardston.
“They’re really excited to have us do it because we’ve been customers for years,” Ms. Dossett said. “It’s invaluable, the advice they’ve given.”
Painted Jamaican Aqua with red-accented doors, the future ice cream bar is coming together, though not as quickly as Ms. Dossett had anticipated. Ms. Dossett and her team expected to be scooping ice cream by now, but the delays have given the owner a chance to have all of her ducks in a row before opening the doors for business.
“I want to do it right and I want it to be nice,” she said. “And I have to be patient.”
She’s also looked for ways to bridge her existing store with the new ice cream bar, serving pie a la mode and brownie sundaes straight from the kitchen.
“We want to integrate the baking with the ice cream,” she explained.
With the end almost in sight, Ms. Dossett has two seemingly contradictory pieces of advice for anyone looking to start up an ice cream bar. First, have a plan and write it down. Ms. Dossett said she kept an entire notebook filled with plans, thoughts, idea, advice, phone numbers, anything she could get her hands on. But while a plan is a must, budding entrepreneurs must be flexible and willing to alter course when the inevitable roadblocks appear.
“When the store started out, it was nothing like this,” Ms. Dossett said. “I studied plant science, I didn’t study to be a baker or own a business. Thank goodness I was adaptable.”
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