In a matter of weeks, 27-year-old entrepreneur David Mainiero has turned what some assumed to be a folly of a business idea ”” opening an ice cream shop to compete with Fairfield”™s well- established favorites ”” into a brick-and-mortar reality scooping up a sweet share of business faster than he ever expected.
“It has been craziness,” the Harvard Law School graduate, who also owns real estate investment and educational consulting firms in New Haven, said of his first month in operation in the ice cream trade.
Drawing lines out the door and down to the corner of Fairfield”™s Brick Walk shopping center, Mainiero said Milkcraft, his all-natural small batch ice creamery is off to a stellar start due to its combination of style and flavor.
“First of all, we think there is plenty of business to go around. People like ice cream,” he said. “Second, we are quite a different product. Not even making comparative or qualitative statements, it is a totally different experience.”
Social media outlets have been a major source of attention for the startup, with photos of Milkcraft”™s eye-catching and unique ice cream products making the rounds on Instagram and Facebook. With a wave of social media driving in new customers, Mainiero estimated the ice creamery is drawing between 800 and 900 people per day on busy weekends and ringing up 530 to 540 individual sales those days at an average of $14 each.
“There has been no time to breathe or even start hiring more people to help out,” he said.
At Milkcraft one won”™t find your typical sugar cone or traditional trinity of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry flavors. Instead, the creamery serves scoops of liquid nitrogen-frozen flavors such as roasted banana peanut butter and jelly, strawberry balsamic and s”™mores campfire served in Hong Kong bubble cones ”” Milkcraft”™s take on a Belgian waffle ”” or stuffed into a glazed donut-like “creameebun.”
While blueberry-dyed ice cream topped with cereal flakes erupting from a hot-off-the-press waffle is a sight to see, the real highlights are the ingredients, said Mainiero. Milkcraft”™s dairy products are sourced from county and state producers and free of hormones and antibiotics ”” what Mainiero decribes as cow-to-cone fresh.
“It is the freshest possible ice cream you can get. The next closest thing is going to a farm to get ice cream.”
Another notable attribute of Milkcraft”™s ice cream is its preparation. Flash-frozen using liquid nitrogen ”” a mist of liquid nitrogen covers the counters tops as a customer”™s order is made ”” the preparation prevents the formation of ice crystals, allowing the ingredients to better bind and creating the ice cream”™s signature smooth texture, Mainiero said.
“This will taste like the creamiest, richest ice cream you”™ve ever had, but it”™s not like there is more butter fat or additional caloric value. It”™s not custard, it”™s just smoother because the water doesn”™t freeze up and break things apart.”
Mainiero”™s venture into ice cream retailing owes in part to his family”™s multigenerational history in the restaurant business. The entrepreneur”™s parents, David and Lynn, have founded a number of eateries, including two Fairfield County restaurants in the 1990s, Spazzi of Fairfield and Sonoma in Southport, in addition to restaurants in Florida and California.
The inspiration behind the Hong Kong bubble cones came from Mainiero”™s travels in China, where he operates branches of his New Haven-based educational consulting firm InGenius Prep. There he discovered, ji dan zai, a popular puffed pastry served by street vendors that was the model for his bubble cone.
A 2015 graduate of Harvard Law School, Mainiero also co-owns and operates a real estate investment firm, TopLiff Peak Enterprises LLC in New Haven. He said he plans to stick with the ice cream industry and rather than practice law, has incorporated his education into his businesses.
“It was a tough decision for me to give up on law. It was what I thought I wanted to do my entire life,” he said. “But I really like charting my own path. I feel like I just have much more ownership over my work and feel a sense of accomplishment with what I make rather than fighting to feel like I have a seat at the table.”
Employing 25 to 30 full-time and part-time workers and looking to hire more, particularly at the managerial level, Mainiero said he has no firm plans for franchising or expanding his business, although that could be on the horizon.
The serial entrepreneur said he started Milkcraft for less than $200,000, using his own funds. Future locations could be launched for as little as $50,000, depending on the area, he said.
“We would like to open a couple more corporate stores,” he said. “We are always open to investors who might be interested or interested in licensing out either by franchising or some other arrangement. We are looking in several cities including Port Chester, New Haven, Danbury. It is very location-driven for us.”
