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Alyx Chandler
Big Spoon Creamery
The sweet smells of the kitchen are about to become a whole lot bigger as Ryan and Geri-Martha O’Hara, the co-owners and co-creators of Big Spoon Creamery, prepare to open their first official storefront in the Avondale area.
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Photo courtesy of Big Spoon Creamery.
Big Spoon Creamery
Along with the expansion to a storefront, the menu is growing as well. It will include things like toppings, sauces and sundaes.
On some days, the entire kitchen smells like warm waffle cones. Other days, it’s citrus and orange peel or fresh strawberries and cream. Whenever the Big Spoon Creamery trike or truck drives through Birmingham, the scent of the day generally follows it from the kitchen, through the streets, to the people.
But come this spring, the people are going to be the ones coming to the Big Spoon Creamery, one of Birmingham’s favorite, local, artisan ice cream companies. The sweet smells of the kitchen are about to become a whole lot bigger as Ryan and Geri-Martha O’Hara, the co-owners and co-creators of Big Spoon Creamery, prepare to open their first official storefront in the Avondale area.
The two first met while working in the restaurant industry. Geri-Martha O’Hara worked as a pastry chef and Ryan O’Hara as a sous chef, both at Bottega.
Eventually, they married and began to toss around the idea of an old-style ice cream shop.
“Every entrepreneur will tell you that the perfect time to start never comes, so you might as well just test the waters, try it,” Ryan O’Hara said, explaining that in 2014, pop-ups weren’t as popular or in style as they are these days.
What started as a back-burner dream quickly evolved into a reality. The grassroots shop has come a long way from when it was first started, when it was what Ryan O’Hara referred to as essentially “a lemonade stand” at their home.
They expected a small crowd on July 4, 2014, when they invited friends and family to come try some of their “old-school” ice cream they’d been experimenting with. Instead, they had a line down the driveway and ran out of everything they had. A reporter from Southern Living even showed up.
“You’re going to get a delicious product when you use high-end ingredients,” Geri-Martha O’Hara said.
Ryan O’Hara said his wife was primarily the brains behind the flavors. “We’ve always let the seasons predict the menu and worked with a lot of nearby farmers.”
As the summer of 2014 went along, the duo kept selling ice cream at various pop-up events and getting more serious about their ice cream dream. In the winter, they closed shop and prepared for the next big step — bringing the first old-school ice cream trike to the state of Alabama. It wasn’t even a year later when they both quit their jobs within a month of each other and focused on fully launching Big Spoon Creamery at Pepper Place.
The following fall, they bought an ice cream truck and hired their first full-time employee.
“That’s when we found this place,” Ryan O’Hara said, referring to the storefront along Third Avenue South. “It was a perfect fit, big enough to house all the production, really great community and culture, really fun place to be.”
He said he wants their first storefront to be high-energy, with a barstool area of at least 12 available seats. Additionally, the Avondale store will feature an open kitchen where customers can get a firsthand look at how the ice cream process works.
For Kim Williams, Big Spoon Creamery store manager, incorporating ice cream into her everyday life is the norm. Previously, she managed an ice cream stand for 15 years and grew up with her family making homemade peanut butter ice cream.
“I don’t need an excuse to love it,” she said with a laugh. “It’s the best. Everyone is usually in a good mood, and if they aren’t, then they are when they leave.”
Geri-Martha and Ryan O’Hara said there is a certain buzz and sense of community happening in Avondale right now that attracted them to the area. They said they’re excited to see where it takes Big Spoon Creamery.
“The amount of support has been unreal. Our customers are our biggest cheerleaders, and they’ve become our great friends, too,” Geri-Martha O’Hara said.
They said they plan to offer about a dozen flavors seven days a week, Sunday through Thursday from noon to 9 p.m. and Friday through Saturday from noon to 10 p.m.
The official opening date hasn’t been decided, but Ryan O’Hara said to customers should keep looking for the release of new flavors and menu items.
Go to bigspooncreamery.com or find them on Facebook.
