Hard (scoop) pivot: home-made ice cream shop opening in Lakeport

LACONIA — When Cole and Sarah Glaude opened Sunday’s Scoops and Treats in Concord, Cole was afraid no one would come. Instead, they ended up with a different problem, which is part of the reason the husband and wife team are opening a second location, Social Club Creamery in Lakeport, on Saturday.

The Glaudes are local kids: Cole grew up in Laconia, Sarah in Belmont. They came to know each other as high schoolers, became serious with one another when she was a senior in high school and he was a fine-art major at Plymouth State University. After college, they went to New York City, where Cole’s career in graphic design was taking off. He worked for Hasbro, Reebok and Gap, but after six years, he said, “it felt like it wasn’t the right fit.”

One thing that did feel right, though, was the ice cream. Northern New England has a strong ice cream tradition, but when the Glaudes were living in New York, they discovered a new world of confection possibilities. They wouldn’t hesitate to spend 45 minutes on the subway to get to the shop that served the best vegan ice cream, or the place that made ice cream with cereal-infused milk. They decided to translate some of that creativity back into their home state.

The first venture with that in mind was Sunday’s, an ice cream business that served only one flavor of ice cream — vanilla soft serve — but with myriad choices of things to sprinkle or drizzle on top. They were ice cream cones engineered for the Instagram age, and it was a success.

Cole said Sunday’s opened in June 2021, and the first year and a half was “pretty steady.” But, earlier this year, their business shot up 40% practically overnight, and without an apparent reason. The jump in volume exposed some critical weaknesses in their business plan, and those points have been addressed through a rebranding. Social Club Creamery is the result of that rebranding, and the opening of the location in Lakeport, one of the first businesses to open in the commercial-residential project at 51 Elm Street developed by Scott Everett, is critical to their new plan.

The first problem with their initial business plan was time. Photogenic sundaes are great for guerrilla social media marketing, but they take time to make — sometimes five minutes. When a line formed at Sunday’s, the people at the back of that line could end up waiting for 30 minutes or more for their order. It also led to a lot of pressure on the staff, because their expectation was for every sundae to be picture-perfect. If it wasn’t, it went in the trash and they made it again.

The second problem was supply. They built their menu around vanilla soft serve, but didn’t have a kitchen in their Concord location, so they had to purchase all their ice cream from a vendor. If they ran out, they had to close until their vendor could make the next delivery.

Social Club Creamery solves these problems by making a pivot away from soft serve and toward hard scoop ice cream, and by opening the shop in Lakeport.

At a scoop shop, according to Cole, a simple order can take as little as 30 seconds — 10 times faster than the orders were taking at Sunday’s. And the shop in Lakeport, which has 900 square feet, is almost entirely dedicated to kitchen space, because Cole and Sarah plan to make all of their own ice cream there, including the ice cream they will serve in Concord.

It’s not just home-made ice cream, actually. They make all of the candies, cookie and cake bits, and other toppings that get added into the mix — well, except for Oreos, because that formula has already been perfected.

They also started making their own waffle cones, out of frustration with cones they purchased from a distributor. Those cones tasted fine, but half of each box would be broken when they opened it. So, Cole started experimenting with a waffle cone batter, and came up with something that not only holds several scoops of ice cream, but it also, they feel, tastes even better.

Cookies will be added soon, and with them, ice cream sandwiches, and Cole said they might also expand into cakes.

The Glaudes plan to have 16 flavors on hand at Social Club Creamery, 12 of which will be “classics,” favorite flavors available year-round, while four will change with each month. This month has a “harvest” theme, with special flavors such as apple cider donut, pumpkin patch, butterscotch sweetcorn and a vegan cranberry crisp.

“If we run out, we have no one to blame but ourselves, and we can fix the problem,” Sarah said.

Social Club Creamery makes ice cream with a 14% milk fat content, and some of the flavors won’t be found at New England’s more traditional scoop shops.

“I think people are interested in something different,” Sarah said.

Social Club Creamery will be open year-round, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sundays.