15 Stories: Paul Nasrani, Adirondack Creamery, Boonville, NY

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If, by chance, you were walking along 14th Street in Manhattan in the mid-2000s and saw a random guy trying to sell ice cream to people passing by…well, that may have been me. Those were the early days, when I was just getting my ice cream company, Adirondack Creamery, off the ground. Soon after walking around trying to sell pints to busy New Yorkers (some were enthusiastic, others not so much), I landed my first customer, a popular grocer right there on 14th. Thank goodness for them. They are customers to this day. 

I love the concept of Small Business Saturday®. I believe that having a day dedicated to celebrating the efforts of Small Businesses nation-wide is tremendously important. 

The recognition alone is huge. Having the American Express name behind a day like that adds credibility to the concept of supporting small businesses. So many small businesses struggle to be recognized, but with American Express encouraging customers to Shop Small®, it gives those businesses the recognition that they may not benefit from otherwise. 

And while we don’t have a storefront to celebrate things like Small Business Saturday, supporting small businesses is what we do. One purchase of our ice cream impacts the distributor, which impacts the farmer, which impacts the plant – all of which are small companies. 

The Early Years: From Farms to Finance 

The story of Adirondack Creamery starts way before the mid-2000s. In fact, it starts when I was a kid. Back then, I spent a great deal of time on a farm in rural Pennsylvania. We’d work during the day, but then after our shifts, I’d help churn homemade ice cream. It was then that I fell in love with the food. I really enjoyed making it and the seed was planted in my brain: I was going to make a living making ice cream one day. 

Well, that isn’t exactly what happened right away. After college, I went into finance and got a job in New York City. Before I knew it, I had worked my way up to the role of Chief Financial Officer, but my ice cream dreams were very much alive. After working a long day, I’d go back to my studio apartment and make ice cream. I made so much of it that I brought it into work and my co-workers raved about the flavors. 

I used my vacation days to travel to ice cream shops and factories around the country. I’d knock on doors and ask how they made their ice cream, what their equipment looked like, and over time I learned more and more. 

When I wasn’t on vacation, after work I would visit a shop in a food market in Midtown Manhattan. In the evenings, they'd make ice cream, and I would go and watch. Since I’d done so much research on ice cream-making equipment, I knew what they were working with: a $40,000 machine – way above my price range. 

Eventually, the shop went into foreclosure and there was an auction to get rid of everything. I won the ice cream maker and in order to get it out of there, I had to wheel it down the street, get a friend with a furniture truck to pick it up, and put it in another friend’s garage. 

Now that I had the machine to make this a business, I felt like I had to do it. A few weeks later, I walked into my job and told the company and the board that I was quitting, and that I was moving to the Adirondacks to make ice cream. 

They didn’t believe me at first – they said I just needed a break from work. 

Well, that was 20 years ago. 

Flavored With Love 

Today, most of our farms are based in Boonville, New York, which is in the Western Adirondacks, just north of Utica. It's gorgeous up here. I spend a lot of time in New York City, too, because it's our primary selling market and in the wintertime my family lives in the city. Our ice cream is sold in national supermarkets and many natural grocery stores from Boston down to North Carolina. We also do a lot of online sales from our website. 

Almost all of our vendors are small businesses. Without those businesses, we would struggle to operate. They’ve been part of our story from the very beginning.  

Our core business is ice cream made with simple ingredients: milk, cream, sugar, and eggs – all items that customers recognize from their shelves at home. We source our milk from cows in the Adirondacks and then ship the milk to the factory. I say “ship,” but the distance between the cows and our factory is really only two or three miles. When our ice cream is made, it's usually only 25 to 30 hours after the milk has left the farm. 

We are really proud of our flavors. They show how much of a family business we are, how dedicated we are to small businesses, and our passion for community and activism. Earl’s Chocolate Peanut Butter is named after Earl, the Pennsylvania farmer from my childhood who taught me how to make ice cream. When I was a kid, he was known for making this amazing chocolate peanut butter fudge every Easter and Christmas. He never had a recipe, but now his grandson is my production manager and he has made it his mission to get as close as possible to that flavor in our ice cream. It is spot on and delicious.  

The Kashmiri Kahwa flavor is a nod to the flavors of our family with delicious South Asian spices, and Kulfi-Pistachio Cardamom is named after a frozen Indian dessert called kulfi. When we first made it, only South Asians and Norwegians would buy it because a lot of people weren’t familiar with cardamom. Now, it’s one of our best-sellers. 

Small businesses are critical to our success. When you're buying from us, you're also impacting a whole line of families and the economy in the most positive way. You are keeping us all going. 

Want to learn more about how to encourage your customers to Shop Small on Small Business Saturday? Visit the Small Business Saturday Resource Hub for marketing materials and business insights that can help you engage with your customers and find new ones. You can also read stories from 15 small businesses that have seen success on Small Business Saturday and beyond.  

As told to Katie Morell, American Express Business Class freelance contributor 

Photos: Josh Dalsimer  

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