Husband and wife team, Robert and Crystal’s, goal is to uplift the community one scoop at a time and they’re doing just that with the recent opening of Ice Cream Cakes & Crepes. The VSU graduates and Petersburg residents opened their business in November and have already received rave reviews from their customers.

Keep reading to hear more about the business!

1. How long have you been baking? Why did you decide to go with Ice Cream Cakes & Crepes? 

We come from a family of bakers and food creators. My nana had a wedding cake business when I was growing up so I always saw cake put a smile on somebody’s face. Who doesn’t love ice cream, especially homemade ice cream; [it’s] always so rich and creamy [and it] brings back so many fond memories. Me and my wife always loved crêpes,  it’s like a blank canvas that you can just add whatever you want – savory or sweet.

2. What’s on the menu? How do you come up with the menu? 
The menu has exactly what our name says Ice Cream Cakes & Crepes: you can build your own crêpe ice cream. We do small cakes, 4 inches on up.  Our menu is very broad, which gives you ways to customize and choices. Our menu is for the customers [and] our goal is to please [them] so if you want [it], we can create it for you. All our price points are for our community.

3. What are your goals for Ice Cream Cakes & Crepes? 
Our goal is to just produce the best tasting product around and have superior customer service. We … eventually wanna expand out to different cities, and maybe [get] into different events and other businesses. Maybe the new casino, maybe the mall. 

4. What would you recommend to a first time customer? What’s your most popular item? What’s your favorite item? 
For first time customer, that’s a child, I would say a “Jungle Fever,” [which is] very similar to cookies and cream. For [a] first time adult customer, maybe the “Butter Pecan.” [The] most popular item is “Ice cream,” two medium scoops.

My favorite item is a banana split and yes we have wet nuts.

5. Do you run the business full-time? If not, how do you balance it with your other job?

Me and my wife both [have] other jobs, [so] this is not our full time business yet. We are still working on balancing, but I believe we got it.

6. What’s your favorite/most challenging thing about running your business?

The most challenging thing about a business is what you don’t know, learning on the fly and adapting to different changes. I guess the biggest challenge is price points, [making sure] we’re not pricing out the community as vendors [because] prices change all the time. Our favorite thing about this business [are the] smiles you get from customers. Who doesn’t like to see a young child with an ice cream mustache?

7. How did you come up with the name?
We needed a name that displayed what we had and was catchy so we put all the menu items together and we got “Ice Cream Cakes and Crepes”

8. Anything else you want people to know about Ice Cream Cakes & Crepes?

We are the only ice cream shop in Petersburg and surrounding cities that makes our own ice cream. This is not that stuff you get from your local grocery store or gas station. This is high-quality ice cream. We also have a great assortment of cakes and we offer crêpes. If you haven’t tried us stop on by 115 Harrison St; we are open all weekend Friday, Saturdays, and Sundays.