The First Tasting

Today was a big day. Today, we introduced Glacier Ice Cream at University Village (which the COO of UCCS tells me the students are just calling "the Village" and so shall I from now on) for the first time to a select group of Colorado Springs residents. They held a luncheon at the Village for a big organization of about 80 commercial real estate brokers. John Winsor, who is the agent I've been working with, talked about the center for a bit, and then the keynote speaker was the COO of the University of Colorado (pictured above), talking about the school and how they've changed and developed and how University Village coming in has benefited them and their students and what they're planning to do with their land on the other side of Nevada (an events center, sports facilities, a performing arts center, new dorms, etc). It's been the fastest growing university in Colorado for a decade now, apparently, and they're pretty excited about their growth.

My job was just to sit while John told everyone about our business and serve everyone bowls of ice cream afterward. John helped me scoop, since it got a bit nuts and I was so busy explaining what gelato was and telling everyone what all the flavors they could pick from were. Now that's a supportive landlord. I'm already using them as manual labor. Speaking of manual labor, I dropped by the site and they're starting to frame the interior walls. The frame for the fireplace wall is already mostly in.

The people at the luncheon were VERY impressed by our ice cream and expressed their enthusiam for coming back with their families, trying more gelato (for many it was their first time), and trying more flavors. Key lime pie and nutella were both big hits. They wiped out the milk and double dark chocolate. It was a lot of fun. I tried strawberry sorbet for the first time (with 800 flavors there are still a lot of firsts out there for me) and it was great. So fruity and so fresh, but still very rich and creamy for something without dairy. I mixed mine with a little Valrhona chocolate sorbet for a dairy-free chocolate covered strawberry treat. I also got to meet the other major partner for the Village, Tom Kohn. He seemed like a decent fellow. Chipolte, one of our neighbors, was also very helpful in letting me use their fridge and ice to cool my ice cream supply.

I'm working on getting a sign up next. I sent some people out to the site to take measurements and pictures and figure out a plan. Our name is so long, we're probably going to shorten it for the exterior signs and just put the full name on a logo sign on the tower. In other news, I talked to our POS supplier and put together an order, I received our back office computer, I figured out a cheaper way to get ahold of some of our key ingredients by forming a partnership with another local business, I talked to a merchant services provider, I made an appointment with a sound system provider, I created some coupons to give out at my pre-opening marketing events, and I brought home about 8 chipolte burritos that were left over from the luncheon. Whew.

Let me reward you for that tirade with some pictures of Patsy's and our store. First the exterior.

Then Amber and I inside talking to Mike, the son-in-law of the owners. It's a family business, and they're great people with a really cool story (involving Africa). They have another son named Mike, and I'm Mike, so it's all a big Mike festival when I visit. You should see the enormous chocolate bars they use to make their candy. 20-30 pounds. You could knock someone out with one of them, and they have dozens.

And here's a recent exterior shot of our store. If you look close you'll see me talking to Amber and her dad. The restaurant next door is coming together fast. I can already make out the outline their roof will follow, thanks to the beams.

To close out the day, I'll regale you with one last story. My coffee supplier contacted me a little while ago to let me know he'd been looking for a good deal on the espresso machine he'd recommended, and he'd found one (and one only), but sadly informed me that it had been snapped up. I told him it was ok. Luckily, I happened to know the guy who had bought it. A fine fellow called Mike Van Schooneveld. So, we've got our espresso machine. For half the retail price. Score! Here's something for all you readers to comment on: what kind of chai do you prefer, the spicier, more tea-like chai or the more milkshake-like chai? One usually comes as a dry mix of spices or as a liquid concentrate of those spices, whereas the other usually comes as a powder or as a creamy concentrated mix. Me, I like the milkshake-like vanilla chai, lots of flavor but fairly sweet and creamy. Which do you prefer?