Winter Edition: LMS Food Critic-- Sugar Mama's Ice Cream

This year the Eagle Eye News food critic, Kate Coffin, will sample treats in our community and share her recommendations with the Lanier family.

Sugar Mama's Ice Cream is a local ice cream shop on Jermantown Road in the strip mall next to the Walmart. I quite enjoy their ice cream, such as the delectable apple pie flavor. I interviewed the founder and owner of the establishment, Vicky Ballowe, and she was kind enough to give me answers to my inquiries. The questions are in red and the responses in black.

• Why did you start Sugar Mama’s Ice Cream? I have actually wanted to have an ice cream shop ever since I was a teenager. I LOVE ice cream and always thought having my own shop would be awesome!

• Is the ice cream your own recipe? Not right now. So far I have not had to use my own recipes. The guys that make the ice cream for me have about 100 amazing flavors/recipes already, so I have not needed to do my own. If I have a flavor idea the guys can help me work out the recipe to put it together, so maybe in the future I will use one of my own ideas. What they do is so good though, so I really have not needed to change a thing. This is one of the ice cream cones Sugar Mama's offers. (http://www.sugarmamasicecream.com/0.41_0.19_0.09_0.29_113_82_csupload_67600613.jpg?u=2784543025

• Do you plan to expand the business? If you do, would you want to be a chain or stay local? When I started I had no plans to expand, then opportunity came knocking. I was offered the chance to open a second shop in historic Occoquan, VA. That is about 25 minutes south of Fairfax City and Lanier MS. It is right at the border of Fairfax County & Prince William County. It is a very small tourist area and the shop space there is very small. I opened that store this past Memorial Day weekend. I don't think I could handle being a chain. If I ever wanted to open a 3rd store, I would probably do that in South Carolina where my family lives. They want a Sugar Mama's down there where they are. But, I am in no rush to do that.

• What were your expectations for the store when you opened it? Did you expect it to flourish or stay alive enough to get a decent income? I hate to say it, but I am not sure what my expectations were when I opened. I wanted it to be successful enough that I could earn a paycheck for myself. I was scared to death, I have never owned a business before. As long as the business stayed alive, I would be happy. Any thought of mega-success or becoming rich were not in my head. A decent income and enjoying what I did was most important.

• When did you start to think about beginning the store? Well, like I mentioned earlier, I have always thought having an ice cream store would be awesome, but never thought I would actually get to do it. While my kids were growing up I was a full time mom and drove a FCPS school bus. In 2012, my youngest son was in HS and I decided to quit my bus driving job. I didn't know what I was going to do for a job next, and started thinking about what I really wanted to do. That crazy thought about having an ice cream shop came up and my family encouraged me to go for it. I started researching in June 2012. I spent at least 2-4 months researching what it would take to get it going.

• How long did it take for your thoughts to become a reality? After months of research, months of planning, and months of getting everything together, it took about 1 year total to have the idea become an actual shop. We opened in July 2013.

• Has the store have a rocky start or has it been smooth sailing? I don't want to say it was a rocky start. After all, it survived. We're still here. BUT, I admit to making rookie business owner mistakes. Never having done this before, the entire 1st year is a learning experience. Like all new businesses, we struggled to stay alive the first year. Winter/cold months were especially tough because business is much slower for ice cream. We are entering year 4 and I still don't think it's perfectly smooth sailing. I am always learning something new and trying to make things better.

• Do you have any events coming up at the store? No big events at the moment. We are getting ready to start collecting for Toys for the Tots, and we offer a discount to anyone dropping off a toy donation. Each year in February we participate in the Chocolate Lovers Festival in Fairfax City. In 2017, we are considering having a fun event every month in the store. We're thinking things like theme nights, or seasonal events, and ways to involve schools. We're up for ideas if you, or other Lanier students, have any.

• What are your most and least popular flavors? The most popular is Coconut Chocolate Crunch. It's number 1 all year long. Other top sellers are Banana Cream Pie, Espresso Chip, Oreo, and Chocolate Brownie. It's hard to pick a least favorite. We usually don't continue a flavor if it doesn't go well with customers. Some of the ones we've had that just didn't really go over well were Egg Nog, Ginger Snap, and Twix (not enough Twix I think).

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