Great business ideas start in the unlikeliest of places. Facebook started in a dorm room, Apple took its first breath of life in a garage and Whole Foods even found its owners bathing themselves in their dishwasher before their business took flight. Although devoid of washing herself in her own dishwasher, Kim Malek of Salt & Straw Ice Cream took a similar approach with her business, starting from scratch out of her basement in Portland.
“I had wanted to open an ice cream shop since 1996 and I lived in fear of that dream until we opened in 2011,” Malek says of Salt & Straw’s launch. Malek previously had worked for companies such as Starbucks Coffee and Adidas, specializing in marketing and product development.
Malek and Tyler Malek, her cousin and head ice cream maker at Salt & Straw, took their product from the basement to a cart and began to serve up the sweet and savory goodness on the streets of Portland. Today, Salt & Straw now operates five scoop shops (three residing in Portland and two in Los Angeles), offers “pints club” monthly delivery memberships and rotates a myriad of creative, seasonal flavors.
Malek emphasizes that Salt & Straw’s success lies within cooperation—this one-of-a-kind artisan ice cream can only be created with the synergy of artisan experts in other culinary fields. For example, Portland-based chocolatier Woodblock Chocolate grew with Salt & Straw, she says, starting around the same time and working together ever since. The Freckled Woodblock Chocolate flavor is featured year-round at Salt & Straw scoop shops in Portland and Los Angeles.
“I was just hoping to survive,” Malek says of when she was creating the business. “I had plans to open one store, I didn’t think we would end up having five stores.”
Opening stores in Los Angeles has been the newest business venture for Malek. A sixth scoop shop is slated for a winter 2016 opening. She says by collaborating with friends and chefs in the City of Angels she was able to open the doors to her business in southern California.
“There is something going on in the food world in Los Angeles,” she says. “Farmers markets are booming and the artisan food movement is extremely successful.”
Although there no plans to operate outside of the Portland and Los Angeles areas currently, Malek says she is grateful she can supply other parts of the country with ice cream via online shipping. Salt & Straw will package up to five different pints of ice cream in a box shipped with dry ice to ensure the ice cream is both fresh and cold and send it right to your door.
In February, Salt & Straw hosts the annual Chocolatier Flavor Series in accordance with Valentine’s Day. Local artisan chocolatiers will be highlighted in the scoops served up this month by the ice cream shop. Malek recommends the Alma’s PB&J Chocolate Bar flavor. The chocolate bar used in this flavor was created this year to celebrate the National Parks 100th anniversary.
