80 years, five generations, two families, same recipes

Heather Graves

Staff

August 19, 2024

CHIPPEWA FALLS/EAU CLAIRE – At Olson’s Ice Cream, it’s often said the shop’s history is almost as rich as its ice cream.

What started as a partnership between a local dairy and Knapp-native Albert J. Olson, Co-owner Jeremy Hunt said, has evolved into a flourishing business with two brick-and-mortars, two concession trailers, a satellite location, mobile cart services and wholesale partnerships.

A bit of history

After several years of making homemade ice cream at Knapp Dairy, Albert moved to Chippewa Falls and began making ice cream and processing milk at Olson’s Creamland Dairy.

It was at this time (1944) that Albert opened the ice cream shop at 611 N. Bridge St. in downtown Chippewa Falls – where the shop remains today.

Three generations of Olsons – Albert, his son Howard and grandson David – were at the helm of Olson’s Ice Cream before selling the operation to the Hunt family.

“My parents (Dan and Linda) purchased the business in 2007, which was just the Chippewa Falls location,” he said.

Primed for expansion

Hunt said he has been working at the shop since he was 14 years old.

“Working at Olson’s at a young age, I figured it was something I wanted to do,” he said. “My parents were always asking if I had an interest in joining the business.”

After taking a short hiatus after college – “I did my own thing professionally for a while” – Hunt said he returned to Olson’s in 2018 because the family wanted to expand.

“It was always in the back of my mind, as well as my parents’ mind, that once I ‘grew up,’ went to college and did my own thing for a bit, that when I came back, we would expand in some way, shape or form – whether it be product lines, or a new location or wholesale or maybe all of the above,” he said.

Eventually, Hunt said the groundwork for his return and the plans to expand began to be set.

“I would come back – I lived in Minneapolis at the time – and discuss things further and test locations,” he said.

During that time, Hunt said they found the property in Eau Claire (80 S. Barstow St.) and things took off from there.

“That expedited things probably three years earlier than I was originally planning on coming back,” he said. “But the location was fantastic, and we wanted to jump on it before someone else got it.”

Expanding to Eau Claire, Hunt said, was something the Olson family had desired to do as well.

“We actually found some of their plans from the 1980s that looked at an expansion to Eau Claire,” he said.

Opening a second location in Eau Claire, Hunt said, was just the beginning of the shop’s expansion.

Olson’s Ice Cream launched its first concession trailer in tandem with the opening of its Eau Claire location.

“We didn’t think we would be busy enough right away with the Eau Claire location, so we thought it would be a good idea to launch our first concession trailer to use at festivals and music events at the same time,” he said. “That was in 2019.”

Hunt said they set up the concession trailer at various smaller festivals, as well as larger events, such as Rock Fest, Country Jam and the Blue Ox Music Festival.

Some of the business’s additional expansion was sparked by outside demand.

“The City of Chippewa Falls came to us, the local ice cream shop, and asked if we would be concessioners for Irvine Park,” he said. “They wanted to start it in 2019, but we were too busy with our other projects, so we ended up pushing that (partnership) to 2021.”

In the beginning, Hunt said the satellite location offered just ice cream but has since expanded its menu to include small foods – including a local meat market’s hotdogs and hamburgers.

“That small satellite location is open every day of the week in the summer and then some other weekends, weather permitting,” he said.

Olson’s Ice Cream added its second concession trailer in 2020 – “we go all over the local area.”

“Corporate events are starting to book our trailers as well,” he said.

Hunt said Olson’s also has mobile cart services for weddings, parties and get-togethers.

“We got into the mobile cart business when my sisters got married around 2012,” he said. “They wanted Olson’s ice cream at their weddings, but we didn’t have any carts. My parents ended up buying a novelty freezer and (wrapped it with the Olson’s Ice Cream name). Someone else saw it at the wedding and asked if we would cater their wedding – and things took off from there.”

At an ice cream convention in Georgia, Hunt said they found “actual ice cream mobile carts” that were made for indoor and outdoor use – “so we bought a couple of those.”

“We wrapped them with the Olson’s Ice Cream name and started a catering program to do weddings, corporate events, graduations, celebrations of life – anything and everything,” he said.

Olson’s Ice Cream’s expansion plan also included branching into wholesale.

“We started getting to some grocery stores,” he said.

Some of the more than a dozen wholesale locations, Hunt said, include: Shadick’s in Bloomer, Hy-Vee in Eau Claire, Woodman’s in Altoona, Chipmunk Cheeks in Siren and Wissota Chophouse in Chippewa Falls.

As the co-owner of a small business, Hunt said his role at Olson’s Ice Cream is “whatever’s needed.”

“I’m one of the co-owners and the general manager – so whether it be helping with operations – during summertime, it’s all hands on deck,” he said. “I do a lot of the delivering (of items and equipment) to events and help get things set up. I make sure employees are where they’re needed. I coordinate with the production team on what’s needed. I’ve helped with production. I help with payroll. I help scoop ice cream every so often. I clean bathrooms. Really, as a small business – it’s literally everything.”

Hunt said Olson’s also expanded into the artisan popcorn industry in 2020.

All popcorn, he said, is made by hand at Olson’s Chippewa Falls location.

Some flavors, Hunt said, include: caramel cashew, dill pickle, grape twist, classic white cheddar, caramel apple and buffalo blue cheese.

New family, same legacy

As a co-owner of Olson’s Ice Cream, Hunt said he is often asked if his name is Jeremy Olson.

“People then ask, ‘why did you keep the name?’” he said.

Hunt said the answer is simple – “because everyone knows what it is.”

“Olson’s Ice Cream has been a staple in a small community for 80 years,” he said. “So, anyone in the Chippewa Valley, and even further out, knows of Olson’s Ice Cream.”

Rebranding, Hunt said, would have been very difficult – and frankly didn’t make sense.

“Three generations of the Olson family did a fantastic job of creating a quality local establishment, and we wanted to make sure we kept everything the same,” he said.

Hunt said not only did that include keeping the name – “which everyone was very pleased with” – the same 80-year-old ice cream recipe remains as well.

“We use the same mix company, and we make everything in-house – which is different from other ice cream shops around our area,” he said.

Hunt said “way back in the day” when Olson’s Ice Cream was Olson’s Cream and Dairy – because they produced more dairy products – they made their own mix.

“In the mid-1970s, they ended up contracting with a Wisconsin mix company to replicate their recipes,” he said. “We still use that today. It is still the same mix, it is still Wisconsin-based and we still make the ice cream in-house.”

In the past 80 years, Hunt said Olson’s Ice Cream has developed and served more than 250 recipes/flavors – and counting.

When it comes to launching a new flavor/recipe, Hunt said much of it has to do with looking at what they already have and enhancing it.

“For example, if you think of cookies and cream, we can enhance the flavor base and create mint cookies and cream,” he said.

Hunt said Olson’s has also received recommendations from staff and customers.

“We’ve had customers come in or call and say, ‘tell the owners we think this would be really good’ – and we will see what we can come up with,” he said. “Employees will give us ideas, not exact recipes, and then we play around with it.”

Hunt said Olson’s Ice Cream has also hosted flavor contests.

“Folks would submit general flavor ideas, we would pick a winner and then we would develop a recipe based on the suggestion,” he said. 

Hunt said flavor ideas are also generated from ice cream conventions.

“We’ll try different ice cream flavors,” he said. “If we like one, we’ll write it down and try to develop a version of our own.”

Carrying on the tradition

Hunt said it is very important to his family to continue the Olson’s Ice Cream tradition.

“We try to touch base with the shop’s heritage, legacy and history as often as we can,” he said. “Being such a strong local icon means the world to us, and we really couldn’t have continued it without such a great community,” he said. “There aren’t many family businesses that have been around for such a long time, so we’re very fortunate and blessed we have a supportive community and in turn, support the community by continuing to provide something that has been around for 80 years.”

Hunt said though it may sound cliche, what he enjoys the most is “being able to be part of peoples’ memories.”

“Most people are happy when they are eating ice cream,” he said. “We have a slogan at Olson’s Ice Cream – ‘creating sweet memories since 1944’ – because that’s what we’ve done. We are part of so many people’s lives. We get to hear about memories, we get to see smiles, we get to see pictures – we’re fortunate to be a part of that.”

Future expansion?

Hunt said they are also having conversations about other ways to grow and adapt the business.

“We’ve talked about a potential expansion to a third full location,” he said. “We’ve also talked about growing our wholesale business.”

However, part of those conversations, Hunt said, has to take into consideration their capabilities in terms of capacity as well – since all production is done at Olson’s Chippewa Falls’ production facility.

“That facility supplies product for all wholesale partners, our Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire stores, our satellite location, all of our events – we are at the point of busting at the seams,” he said. “So, if we were to ever grow in the future, we would need to figure out a potential new production facility.”

Though all plans at this point “are up in the air,” Hunt said the conversations are ongoing.

“We just have to figure out which is the right stepping stone to move forward,” he said.

Olson’s Ice Cream’s Chippewa Falls location is open from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. daily, while the Eau Claire location is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

For more, visit olsonsicecream.com.