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Three brothers turn childhood hobby into a business
SHERRY KARABIN
Legal News Reporter
Published: October 11, 2016
They grew up in Valley City using home ice cream makers to come up with their own creations. Now three brothers are putting their flavors to the test, launching two artisan ice cream shops in northeast Ohio in the last 18 months.
Jeremy, Zachary and Patrick Jaworski opened their first Chill Ice Cream at 11 Public Square in Medina in April of 2015. In August, they unveiled a much larger one at 21 Maiden Lane in Akron.
“Growing up in northeast Ohio we only had a few ice cream stores around us and they usually just had basic flavors like vanilla, chocolate and strawberry,” said Patrick, 19, the youngest of the three owners. “We wanted more variety. Then our parents bought us an ice cream maker and we started playing around with it.”
Around 2013, Patrick said they decided they wanted to open an artisan ice cream company.
“We knew how to make ice cream but we didn’t know how to do it commercially,” said Patrick. “So we began doing a lot of research and started going to ice cream shows.
“At one of the shows we met a guy named George who had been in the business for about 40 years and he began coaching us on what needed to happen.”
On any given day, there are 32 flavors in each store for patrons to choose from, all manufactured on site.
“We make ice cream at both locations,” said Patrick. “We use fresh ingredients and we try to buy those ingredients from local farms and businesses. For example, we buy corn from Szalay’s Farm and we use it to make our roasted Sweet Corn flavor.”
Some of the more unique options include Cantaloupe & Cream, Smoked Bacon Truffle, Mint Confetti, Coffee & Donuts, Salted Popcorn, Cilantro Lime Margarita, White Zinfandel and Apple Cider Sorbet. They also offer a few vegan choices like Shhh It’s Vegan Lemon Poppyseed.
Mayor Dan Horrigan and his staff also developed a flavor for the Akron store called #HeyAkron, a Baileys buttercream with salted caramel swirls.
“I am a true fan of ice cream and very excited to have Chill in downtown Akron,” Mayor Horrigan said in an emailed statement. “It was fun for me to create a frozen treat filled with flavors I believe would complement one another. In my opinion, #HeyAkron highlights what our city represents--a great destination offering a variety of exciting choices for a diverse group of people.”
Other groups in the community have helped to invent flavors as well.
The business is structured such that Jeremy, 26, manages the Medina store and Zachary, 23, runs the Akron location. Patrick, who is getting a bachelor’s degree in business administration at The University of Akron, works part time at both locations making ice cream and handling the marketing and social media.
Zachary said they develop new flavors every time they make ice cream.
“We make our ice cream two or three times a week,” said Zachary. “We do a lot with vegetables like our Zucchini bread and carrot cake ice creams.”
As of mid-September, Patrick said there had been about 600 flavors featured in Medina and around 80 in Akron.
He said customer choices vary depending on the season. “Our sorbets are a favorite in the summer. Right now our pumpkin and apple pie flavors are doing well.”
“The best part about owning an ice cream store is that ice cream makes people happy,” said Zachary. “We love being a part of the community and we donate a large portion of our sales to local nonprofits.”
At the Medina location, they offer all natural non-dairy frozen yogurt treats with peanut butter for customers’ dogs. There is no charge, but patrons usually make donations, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the local SPCA.
“We give the organization about $350 a month on average,” said Zachary.
Each shop has its own unique ambience.
“The Medina building went up in the 1800s and is one of two buildings to survive the fire of 1870,” said Zachary “We kept the ceiling and the walls and we added some modern fixtures to it.”
The Akron facility, which also has an entrance at 30 N. High St., spans over 2,000 square feet. The exterior of the building showcases a mural painted by local artists who are part of The University of Akron’s Art Bomb Brigade (community arts program run by UA’s Myers School of Art).
“We are part of the Downtown Akron Partnership’s ‘pop-up retail’ program,” said Zachary.
The initiative matches entrepreneurs with property owners who have empty first-floor storefront spaces.
“Our lease is five years, but the Downtown Akron Partnership supplemented the lease for six months,” said Zachary. “We donated that money to the Art Bomb Brigade to give back to the area.”
Zachary said the plan is to move all the ice cream manufacturing to the Akron location since it’s larger than Medina.
In addition, to ice cream and sorbet, patrons can also get milkshakes, floats, sundaes, ice cream sandwiches, pushup pops, mini cones and pints.
As for the name, Patrick said they were searching for a single word that was related to ice cream and they came up with Chill.
“We got the idea of a one word name from a popular bar in Cleveland called Liquid,” Patrick said.
While the stores both have a strong social media presence on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, Zachary said word of mouth still accounts for a large portion of their business.
First-time customer Ivonne Davis said she learned about the Akron store from one of her co-workers. She said she found it hard to decide what to order since “it all looks so good.”
In the end, she chose Sea Salt Caramel Truffle and said she plans to return to try more flavors.
Artist Eileen Matias said she found Chill while looking for a sandwich shop. “I prefer supporting local businesses,” said Matias, who opted for Black Raspberry Sage.
Patrick said one of the best things about owning an ice cream business is that it’s “recession proof. People eat ice cream no matter how the economy is doing.
“It is something we took into consideration when we decided to start the business,” said Patrick.
“The Medina store was profitable within a few months after we opened.”
They currently employ about six part-time workers in Medina and three part-time people in Akron.
“Right now the Medina location is much busier,” Patrick said. “Our parents also help make ice cream.”
He said the goal is to open a new store every year.
“I would say the maximum number would be 15 and that way we could each manage five stores, with the Akron store distributing to all the others,” said Patrick.
Zachary said their next venture would be in one of Akron’s neighborhoods, but he did not know when it would open.
“The city of Akron has asked us to start an ice cream truck,” said Zachary. “We are thinking about doing it in the future but right now I think we are too new.”
The Medina location operates seven days a week, but Akron closes on Sundays. For information on the hours of operation go to (http://chill-icecream.com/).