Words by Molly Hays
Photography by Rachel Joy Baransi and Sarah Beaty
When the history of ice cream in America is written, chances are it will fall into two eras: Before Jeni’s, and After Jeni’s.
The Jeni in question is Jeni Britton Bauer, who in 2002 opened her first Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in Columbus, Ohio. Today, just over ten years later, Jeni’s Splendid has ten retail locations, wholesale distribution coast to coast, $1 million in online sales, and countless raging fans. And? They’re just getting started.
Not Your Average Ice Cream
There’s no better beginning to the Jeni’s story than a fast-forward, right to the end. As I chatted with Britton Bauer this past March in her light-filled, subway-tiled Short North location, we were interrupted shortly after we began. “You’re super busy,” a gentleman said, apologetically, “[but] I want to thank you for your product, and your business model.” His gratitude was palpable, his enthusiasm so keen he could have been an actor paid to deliver lines. He wasn’t. He was, he went on to explain, an accounting instructor from three hours upstate who case-studies Jeni’s in his classes, and who packs a cooler whenever traveling to Columbus to hand-carry his kids’ favorite flavors back home.
This is devotion. This is success.
This is not your average ice cream.
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