Today marks one year since our first day serving ice cream, at the Accent Hardwood parking lot, just north of the Durham Farmers Market:
We knew back then that we were making terrific ice cream, but we really had no idea if we’d sell any. Okay, we were encouraged by the fact that we had a couple hundred fans on Facebook and Twitter before we even opened, but who could say whether anyone else would find us? (more…)
Our last blog post talked about how honored we are to connect with the local community by participating in nonprofit and charitable events. Of course, The Parlour a for-profit enterprise, and we’re also grateful for the relationships we’ve built with other local businesses.
It would take a lot of posts to discuss every kind of interaction with other businesses, so we’ll just talk about companies that provide a place to park. These companies support us in 2 ways: enabling us to serve to the public, or hiring us directly to cater an event.
We have to begin with a hearty toast to Motorco and Fullsteam. Our regular appearances at these great Rigsbee Ave. spots have really gotten our name out there. We’ve also made occasional evening and weekend stops at Outsiders Art & Collectibles (where we’ll be this Friday!), Magpie Boutique, the Wells Fargo on Main, and Accent Hardwood.
In 2011 we didn’t serve much during the workweek. This season, we’ll be joining friends for lunch a few times a month, thanks to some Triangle businesses who graciously host lunch trucks. Here’s the lineup for now:
We love bringing our handmade treats to the folks working hard in the region’s office parks, so we appreciate the companies who’ve invited us out to scoop on their property!
Triangle businesses also gave us a big boost in our first year by hiring us to come treat their employees on premises. Some of these include the aforementioned Health Decisions and Insomniac Games, as well as Epic Games, SportsMedia Technologies, Panera Bread, iContact.com, and more. Folks seemed thrilled to have us out, and we’re looking forward to making some return visits this year!
We plan to add some more regular daytime appearances this year, so we’d like to hear about it if your company’s a good spot to be seen. And we always welcome the opportunity to provide the treats at catered events. Could your workplace use more great handmade ice cream? Get in touch!
Our bus is often spotted outside of Motorco or Fullsteam, where we have our only two regularly-scheduled appearances (Sunday afternoons and Wednesday nights, respectively). We love those businesses, and we’re thrilled to be a staple of the Rigsbee Ave. food truck scene. But we also want to visit other neighborhoods (we are mobile after all), so we can be seen by folks who haven’t heard of us yet and get closer to the fans who can’t make it to Rigsbee Ave. easily. So we wanted to let y’all know about some other locations we have coming up.
We’ve been parking at Posh or Magpie from 2:00-5:00 the last few Saturdays. We have some special events coming up the next few weekends, but we’ll be at Magpie again on Thursday the 18th, and will probably start going regularly on Saturdays again soon.
Monkey Bottom Collaborative is an artist space in Old West Durham that’s having a dance party on Saturday the 20th. Bring your own iPod (or Zune or MiniDisc player) with a playlist full of dance, then take breaks from dancing to eat ice cream or vice versa.
We’re doing another event on Tuesday the 23rd at Outsider Art & Collectibles, a gallery on Iredell* that’s celebrating some renovations and the arrival of fall.
We also show up every other Wednesday at Erwin Square, 2200 W. Main*. We just stop by for an hour (3:00–4:00 pm) so folks working in the building can take an ice cream break, but anyone is welcome to show up!
*okay, we think but aren’t entirely sure, that these places are in OWD…
Infuzion is a studio on Westgate Dr. (over by Li Ming Global Mart and Toys R Us), with classes for all ages in dance, music, and martial arts. This Saturday, August 13th, they’re having a festival all day where you can sample dance classes cheap! We’ll be there from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm.
The Penrith West community is having a Salsa Walk on Saturday the 20th. As we understand it, it’s an outdoor salsa contest where anyone who brings their own chips can vote for the winner. It’s at 5604 Welkin Ct. which is out by Highway 54 and I-40, almost to RTP.
If you or your friends live or hang out in any of these places, come say hi! If you have suggestions for other neighborhoods that would like to have us, drop us a line.
We’re trying a new new thing tonight. We’ll be at Fullsteam, but instead of bringing the truck, we’re just bringing a few flavors of ice cream to make floats with their beer, and probably some root beer too. We like to have Mondays off—well, “off”, since we usually take the time for cleaning and prep—so this may not be a completely regular thing. But we like collaborations, so it’ll surely happen more than once. Stay tuned.