Job Spotlight with Heather Johnsen, Owner of The Ice Cream Girl & Co.

It has been more than five years since Heather Johnsen took a leap of faith and set up a truck from which she would peddle ice cream and shave ice treats, starting in early spring and running pretty much until early November.

The genesis of what she named, The Ice Cream Girl & Co., was from her own love of the ice cream trucks she would buy from at the Jersey Shore where she worked.

"I thought it would be the coolest job to wear flip flops and shorts to work every day," said Johnsen, 41, a native of Pittsburgh, Pa. "So when I moved to Columbus, I knew there was a Sno Hut here at some point that everybody raved about."

Not that her father back in Pennsylvania didn't try to talk her out of it.

He bluntly told her she would have to sell "a lot" of ice cream and simply wanted his daughter to know what she was getting into.

"But I said, 'I'm going to do it. I'm going to make it work,'" Johnsen said. "You know, you've got to follow your heart."

Today, she operates a location, with a truck and umbrella seating, at 5547 Veterans Parkway in north Columbus.

She also has a second truck that stays mostly mobile, catering in particular to corporate and community occasions and events.

Johnsen is part of a thriving frozen treat sector in Columbus and nationwide. The International Dairy Foods Association, citing Mintel market research, says U.S. sales of ice cream and frozen novelty products totaled $10.7 billion in 2011 and is growing. About two-thirds of the segment is take-home sales, it said.

And don't forget, former President Ronald Reagan in 1984 declared July "National Ice Cream Month," although in the Deep South, anytime is a good time to cool down with a sweet treat of the frozen variety.

The Ledger-Enquirer visited recently with Johnsen at her north Columbus location, discussing her job, the most delicious and popular flavors, and the potential for expansion somewhere near you.

This interview is edited a bit for length and clarity.

Discuss your truck. Why did you decide to think pink?

Well, I loved pink and I thought it was different and I just thought it was cute. And the truck at the beach (in New Jersey) was like neon paint. They sold soft serve and lemonade and snacks and things like that. So I just wanted something that was cute and fun, and all of the other trucks are boring. I just wanted to be different. I live my life in color. I love colors. It makes people happy when they see it.

I wanted to make it something that was approachable, that was cute, that was nostalgic, that was safe, and just bring that joy back to people no matter what age you are.

What was your favorite frozen dessert flavor growing up?

I loved the original red, white and blue bomb pop. And I love a chocolate chip cookie ice cream (called) Chips Galore. And they're still some of my favorites.

But I also wanted to do shave ice. I had it when I went to visit the beach one summer and I loved it. It was a little different. So I researched it and really did some work on it and I knew Columbus had the Sno Hut at one point and people talked about it, raved about it. I thought, you know what, I can bring that back. I can do what I love, which is an ice cream truck, and also have a shave ice truck. That's kind of how it evolved.

But there is competition with other trucks out there?

There is, yeah, yeah, but they mostly do neighborhoods and things like that. There's not a lot that do corporate events and so forth, and that's what we primarily stick with. We stick with fundraisers and corporate events, family reunions, birthdays, weddings and, of course, this location as well.

How long have you been at this Veterans Parkway site?

This is only my second year. We originally started out in The Landings. We moved to Harmony Place, and now this is our spot for a little while.

Is this location, with the very steady traffic, different?

It's actually better here. It's sort of a little oasis. I look around and all of these people have come specifically for this, and that amazes me at times because Columbus is so finicky about certain things. Things sometimes sink and swim. I really love what I do, and I love that people love it.

It's a lot of work; it's a lot of labor. There's so much on the back end. My ice cream doesn't magically appear in my truck. My ice doesn't magically appear from Buck Ice. I make all of my own ice. I make all of my own syrups. And I have to go up to Atlanta to get ice cream every week. So there's a lot involved in it. My fiancée always says, 'You make it look really easy, Heather.'

You have an ice-making machine?

I have lots of freezers. We constantly make shave ice everyday.

Do tastes change at all?

Yeah. We try to do stuff fun. I traveled to Hawaii in October and I went to five different shave ice places. Loved every one of them. They had different things, and I took home some of their flavors that I loved that we can't find here in the States. One of them is POG, which is a passion fruit, orange and guava, and it's super popular. It's become a huge hit. And then honeydew, which is like a honeydew melon. I only buy them from a Hawaii distributor.

How many flavors do you have now?

I don't even know how many flavors we have. It's a lot. At least 20, maybe 25. And then we have sugar free. And we do fun stuff, like add gummy worms onto it for the Columbus Cottonmouths. We did like an ode to them, and then we do a snake bite, where we put gummy snakes on it, and we put nerds on them as well. And, of course, our snow cream, which is like a sweetened condensed milk. It's extremely popular in Hawaii, Japan and other countries, and in New Orleans and so forth Any flavor you have, like a banana and cream, cherries and cream, it's the best.

Are you seasonal or a year-round operation?

We are now year-round because we are in the Columbus Civic Center as well. We have a kiosk there now, starting in October of last year. So when we're closed here, we're open there. We're open for every hockey game, every Lions game, every concert and things like that.

Before that, what was your season?

We would typically start in March and go until the beginning of November, weather permitting. Really that always dictates everything we do. When it starts getting kind of cold, it's not fun anymore.

What are the most popular treats you serve?

The most popular shave ice is probably our blue raspberry or strawberry. But our number one flavor is Tiger Blood. It's strawberry, coconut and watermelon. It's been around forever and it's hands down the best seller.

Do you experiment yourself with new flavors?

Oh, yeah. We've created about 10 or 15 different combinations where we've mixed things together for people that don't know what they want. We make it fun. We name them after things that my dad loves, where I'm from, where my fiancée went to school. My best friend's son picked out one. My sister picked out one. And some of my girls that help me out, they make creations. So we do all kinds of things.

What about the ice creams?

Strawberry Sundae Crunch is the best seller. It brings people back no matter how old you are. Back in high school, people would always get the éclairs. They sometimes call them éclairs, but it's a sundae crunch.

As the temps get warmer and warmer, as they're doing now, do you automatically see more customers?

Yeah, I think so. We've been putting a lot of stuff on social media, too. We really try to go with Instagram and Facebook. We try to change posts everyday. I try to feature something special. Starting next week we're going to do certain flavors of the week, like we'll have green tea. We brought that from Hawaii and we're going to give that a try. It's extremely popular with Japanese clientele. It's a shave ice flavor.

We don't sell any ice cream at this (Veterans Parkway) location. We just sell it on the truck that goes around.

Do you ever get tired of eating ice cream or shave ice?

Not at all.

What brought you to Columbus, the military?

Uh-huh. I was married. He has passed away. He died in Iraq in '07. But it brought me here and I wanted to stay here. I really love it.

What about branching out or expanding The Ice Cream Girl & Co.?

We're looking, we're looking.

Will there be a third truck?

It won't be a truck. It probably will be something else, but yes, we're actually in the process of doing that now.

Like a physical location?

Maybe. I don't know. We'll see.

Is that the natural next step, to find a brick-and-mortar location?

Yeah. We want to branch out a little bit, into Columbus and into Phenix City.

Is there an area of town you would like to be in? Downtown has become awfully popular?

Yeah. We're looking at that. We've got some feelers out for that. Of course, we'll always have a location here as long as they'll let us have it. Columbus is wonderful like that. If they love something, they'll treat you right. They'll be a loyal customer. If they love what you have, if you have a good product, people will come.

Talk about the corporate end of it. Has it gotten bigger and bigger?

It has. Most of my things during the week are businesses, and summer camps in the summer. CSU is a huge one, TSYS, Synovus, Aflac, they all are part of it. We do a little bit of everything.

What's a typical corporate setup?

We arrive and we're pretty much ready to go. So we just allow to start coming out and pick what they want, whether they want ice cream or shave ice We normally stay for about an hour so people can just kind of come out and do what they want to do.

What's the most challenging aspect of your job?

I can't micromanage it. My business is going to grow only as big as my arms will reach. So I can't have my hands in everything, and I've got to let some things go. So I've just evolved. I've kind of let people help me out a little bit, my fiancée, his father, they all help me.

You're a hands-on person?

Oh, yeah, I definitely am. I'm OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) about some things. We want to be the cleanest. We want to be the safest. Plus, we want to be the freshest. We want to be the most unique. We want to be the friendliest. All of those things make or break a business. Period. I don't care how big you are, how much money you put into your business, if you don't have great people, if you don't have good stuff, it's not going to be good. You're not going to survive. You're just not.

What's the most rewarding thing about your job?

I love it, especially when I go to nursing homes, and seeing the older people, it just brings them back (in time). I mean, they love it. It's so nostalgic for them. They feel like they're kids again. And a lot of adults do. I think everybody does It doesn't matter what age you are. You can still enjoy the ice cream truck.

Finally, just to let folks know, what are your hours?

We are open now seven days a week, 12 to 8 Monday through Saturday, and Sunday, 1 to 8. That's until the end of August, probably. We'll reduce the hours when school goes back in session.

Bio

Name: Heather Johnsen

Age: 41

Hometown: Pittsburgh, Pa.

Current residence: Overlook neighborhood of Columbus

Education: Attended Penn State University

Previous jobs: Says she started working at age 15 and has had “all kinds of fun and crazy jobs” that helped prepare her for owning her own business

Family: Fiancee, Doug Brown; three sisters — Samantha Johnsen of Delray Beach, Fla., Brooke and Haley Johnsen of Pittsburgh Pa., and a brother, Sean Johnsen of Missouri; and her beloved German Shepherd named Adler

Leisure time: She loves to hang out with her fianceé and friends, renovating and redecorating her home, going boating and being in the sun on Lake Martin in Alabama, and visiting Cape San Blas, Florida

Of note: She recently traveled to Hawaii and swam with sea turtles. While there, she also visited five Hawaiian shave ice stands and “enjoyed all of them,” bringing back two new flavors — honeydew and POG (passion orange guava). She enjoys cooking, especially around the holidays. She also loves zip-line and aerial obstacle courses, having done so in the Dominican Republic rainforest and, closer to home, at Banning Mills (Georgia) and here in Columbus

This story was originally published May 9, 2015 at 7:36 PM with the headline "Job Spotlight with Heather Johnsen, Owner of The Ice Cream Girl & Co.."