Heavenly Creamery has been scooping homemade ice cream for 10 years
By Joe Frye
Fifteen years ago, Joe and Christine Ericksen decided that, to celebrate their wedding anniversary, they would learn to make ice cream from scratch. Signing up for a class, the couple later utilized their new skills for entertaining at pool parties and cookouts. “We were [making ice cream] at home on a stovetop with a little homemade ice cream machine that made weird noises for 45 minutes,” Joe says.
Years later, the Ericksen’s operation would become a much larger one. Located in an early-20th-century church, Heavenly Creamery, in Conneaut, Ohio, has been scooping homemade ice cream for a decade now. Owned and operated by the couple, the company was born less out of passion and more out of need, as neither of the couple had ever dreamed of opening an ice cream shop.
Working in real estate, the Ericksens would purchase dilapidated buildings before cleaning them up and reselling them. A church in the town had caught their eye one day, though it was out of budget. However, in the following months, when no one purchased the church, the Ericksens felt conflicted. “We said, ‘Well, are we going to complain that nobody did anything, or are we going to do something?’” Joe says. Thus, the couple decided to purchase the church and renovate it themselves.
As the renovation came along, the couple decided to take their time. Sitting on the property, they received news that they would be charged vacancy insurance if they didn’t come up with a plan.
“[The insurance agent] said, ‘It’s $2,000 a month,’ and I said, ‘We’ll have a plan for you tomorrow,’” Joe says. “The only thing that we had in our wheelhouse that we thought was different was we knew how to make from-scratch custard.”
From that idea, Heavenly Creamery was born. Honoring the building’s original use, “We tried to repurpose everything that was here when we got it,” Joe says. The stained-glass windows in the shop are original and guests can choose to enjoy their ice cream sitting in a pew or at the altar after they order from a variety of flavors listed on a hymn board.
In addition to the decor, the menu helps Heavenly Creamery distinguish itself from other ice cream shops. “I think people come because they’re looking for a weird flavor of ice cream,” Joe says. While the shop serves up staples like vanilla, strawberry and chocolate, it also offers rotating flavors that customers may be hard pressed to find elsewhere, such as breakfast ice cream, buttered popcorn, sweet potato cheesecake and more.
While the unique flavors and decorations may be a drawing factor for the business, Joe says that the success of his business comes as a surprise, especially given the origin of the idea. “If you look at the numbers for small businesses and failure rate, we had to ask ourselves if we were OK with the odds,” he says. “But we’re still here, so it can’t be going that bad.”
