Here at Wild Scoops, we take our connection to the community very seriously. We love making new friends, from a kid in line at the scoop shop to a freshly hired employee to an Alaskan gardener/grower celebrating the food of our state with us! As we've grown, we've been lucky to have many friends join us along the way. And the best way to cement the best buds relationship, is to know each other's history. So for those of you who aren't yet familiar with our sweet beginnings, here's the scoop!
2011: Wild Scoops owner Elissa Brown started making ice cream as a hobby, while working as a middle school science teacher in rural North Carolina. Inspired by an old library cookbook, she began experimenting in her kitchen and inviting friends over for tastings.
Winter 2015: We began the paperwork to make the ice cream dream a reality. The hunt for a commercial kitchen also began, and was completed in the rental of the Mad Myrna kitchen downtown. A small commercial ice cream maker was purchased, which could produce only 3/4 gallon at a time!
May 2015: First day of sales at the South Anchorage Farmers Market! We met so many new people here who became longtime Wild Scoops friends. Returning every summer feels like coming home in many ways!
Winter 2016: We hired our first few official employees! We launched the Adventure Club and added La Bodega and Summit Spice & Tea to our wholesale list.
May 2016: We continued with our second year at the South Anchorage Farmers Market, and we added in the APU Farmers Market and various pop-ups.
Fall 2016: We finally had our own kitchen space! We retrofit an empty space in Fairview and starting using a big ice cream maker, which produces 5 gallons at a time. (This is the Test Kitchen, where you can now come see the ice cream making magic happen during open hours on Thursdays 4-6:30.)
Winter 2017: Second year of Adventure Club and our members tripled. Our Anchorage neighbors love adventurous ice cream flavors! We also began leasing shop space and the renovations began to turn it into the perfect downtown sweet spot.
May 2017: Grand Opening of the Scoop Shop! Our number of employees skyrocketed as we worked hard to keep up to the demand of ice-cream-hungry visitors downtown. We loved meeting new people and introducing them to the wildly delicious flavors of Alaskan ice cream.
And the adventure goes on! Our Scoop Shop just celebrated its first birthday this past May, and we are looking forward to many exciting new projects in the future. Thanks to our community who keeps us inspired to keep on creating!