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interview with haven's creamERy

Richmond’s Sweet Oasis: An Inside Look at Haven’s Creamery (transcript only)

Tucked away between the hottest pubs, restaurants and shops London’s Richmond Row has to offer lies Haven’s Creamery, a small-batch ice cream shop with a cult following. Prior to closing indefinitely in the wake of COVID-19, store manager Jess was kind enough to let us in on what makes Haven’s Creamery such a hit with the locals, how it started, and where it’s going.

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Amelia: How long has your business been open?

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Jess: This will be our third summer; we opened in April of 2017. 

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How long have you been working here?

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I started here during the May long weekend of that first year. I knew the owner from before, and she reached out to me looking for help with the store.

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What do you like about working here?

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For a job, it’s chill. In the summer I’m strictly in the kitchen, which I like. I like working at my own pace. I also like seeing customers enjoy the ice cream in winter. We sell good product, in a nice place. You see the growth from month to month. This month has been busy in general, not just busy for a winter month. 

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Why do you think that is?

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I think it’s because we often have new, fun flavours, people like that. We try to come up with flavours that are doable, but cool and funky ones that bring people in. So, for example we’re preparing a chocolate Guinness flavor in honour of St. Patrick’s Day coming up.

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How long have you been in this location?

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We’ve been here since we opened.

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How did you choose this spot?

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We wanted to be close to Richmond, to both the student and the general population, but having a patio for the summer was key. If we were anywhere else we wouldn’t get a lot of foot traffic, which is huge--especially for a seasonal business.

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What inspired the store owner to open the business?

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The owner, Alana Coughlin, has a Blue Seal and attended culinary school. She modelled this store after a place in Calgary called Village Ice Cream. The goal was to sell something simple, but a good product.

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What is the philosophy behind your food/business?

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Our goal is to offer good quality product; we don’t use any artificial colours or flavours. We make everything by hand, from scratch, in our tiny kitchen in the back. We are the only peanut-free ice cream shop in London, which is a huge thing, and it was done very purposefully. You’ll have kids come in who have never been able to order an ice cream cone, or from an ice cream counter before, and it’s very rewarding to see their faces light up when they realize that they can do that here.

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What is your most popular flavour?

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For our regular flavors, it’s probably a tie between cookie dough, London fog, and mint chocolate. For our feature flavours, a fan favourite is definitely pistachio. We have a feature flavour each month in the summer, and we have two feature flavours each month in the winter because we have more time then to come up with them.

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What is your target demographic?

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Mostly students and families. We have a lot of students come in, and a lot of little kids stop in with their guardians after school.

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Do you have a lot of regulars? Is there a sense of community behind this business?

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We have a lot of regulars, which is nice because we really get to build a relationship with them. I have one man who always gets the same thing, and whenever I see him coming in, I just start scooping his order because I know what it’s going to be.

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What is it like to own a food business in London? Is there a community atmosphere of restaurateurs?

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Yes, I’d say so. We have a really good relationship with Black Walnut Bakery Cafe; we get our coffee and tea from there to make our flavours. We have restaurants buying tubs of our ice cream to serve affogato, we have people reaching out to make special orders for them, and we even heard from a business in Grand Bend who wants to sell our ice cream.

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Do you collaborate with other food businesses in the area?

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Not too many, because they always want to collaborate in the summer and we’re too busy. We were working on collaborating with another restaurant, but they closed unfortunately.

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Where do you source your produce from? Are you particular about your sources? 

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We source our milk and cream from Hewitts’s, a little dairy place in Hagersville. In the summer, we get our fruit from a Niagara farmer that comes to the Masonville Farmers’ Market, we’ve actually been using his produce from the start. There’s a blueberry farm near London we also frequent; we’re consciously buying local wherever we can.

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What are your goals for the business, from here?

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Well, we know that our customers want to see vegan and sugar-free options, but we’re trying to figure out a way to do that without compromising on the quality of the product, so that’s definitely our next challenge.

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To find out more about Haven’s from the owner herself, check out the video below:

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