{"id":9281,"date":"2015-03-31T18:39:49","date_gmt":"2015-03-31T18:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/?p=9281"},"modified":"2015-03-31T18:39:49","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T18:39:49","slug":"frozen-town-frozen-treats-how-ottawa-gelato-vendors-survive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/?p=9281","title":{"rendered":"Frozen town, frozen treats: how Ottawa gelato vendors survive"},"content":{"rendered":"

So you\u00a0think you<\/em> have it tough here in\u00a0winter? Try selling frozen yogurt or gelato for a living.<\/p>\n

Despite any global warming trends, Ottawa winters remain four months of sometimes-brutal cold.\u00a0With\u00a0frostbite warnings and driving advisories in the\u00a0news, Ottawa residents\u00a0might hesitate\u00a0to step out\u2014let alone step out for cold dessert. On Elgin Street, Michelle Tommy has been owner and operator of Pure Gelato for 15 years,\u00a0selling\u00a0gelato in a variety of flavours, plus caf\u00e9-inspired desserts, sandwiches and cr\u00eapes.<\/span> She says the trick to sustaining\u00a0her business through the winter\u00a0is simple.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Michelle Tommy, owner and operator of Pure Gelato on Elgin Street. [Photo \u00a9 Selin Kum]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\u201cWe coast,\u201d she says as she drops her hands. \u201cYou make your money all summer, and you coast throughout the winter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tommy says that\u00a0cr\u00eapes and desserts\u00a0account for only\u00a0around 15 percent of her\u00a0year\u2019s total sales;\u00a0gelato captures 85 percent. Yet she says gelato sales are a\u00a0big\u00a0variant: completely reliant on season. \u201cDuring the summer we have lines out the door, but when it comes to winter and it\u2019s minus 40 degrees outside, I could write \u2018Free\u2019 on my windows and I would not have that same line-up,\u201d\u00a0Tommy says. So we basically streamline to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

A cooler sales season<\/h2>\n

Gelato vendors like Tommy\u00a0look at a 12-month span: May to August\u00a0is the\u00a0vital one-third,\u00a0counterbalancing much of the rest of the year.\u00a0Over 12\u00a0months, vendors\u00a0will have balanced their highs and lows, for a sustainable business model.<\/p>\n

Frozen yogurt, also known as \u201cfroyo,\u201d\u00a0is sold by a franchise named Menchie\u2019s, a make-it-yourself shop with four Ottawa locations. James King is general manager of the ByWard Market and Barrhaven locations. He admits that\u00a0business definitely slows\u00a0in winter: \u201cWhen temperatures dip, folks are less likely to source out a cold treat.\u201d Menchie\u2019s\u00a0mitigates\u00a0the winter slump by putting on less staff,\u00a0reducing\u00a0costs. Thus\u00a0Menchie\u2019s\u00a0coasts part year,\u00a0like Pure Gelato.\u00a0King\u00a0says they choose to stay open year-round because they don\u2019t want to lose their trained core staff, or have their brand forgotten.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2018You hope the summer comes early, and you hope it lasts long.\u2019\u00a0\u2013 Pure Gelato owner Michelle Tommy<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The caf\u00e9\u00a0advantage<\/h2>\n

For Tammy Giuliani, owner and master gelato chef of Stella Luna Gelato Caf\u00e9 in Old Ottawa South,\u00a0the story differs\u00a0slightly. Stella Luna\u00a0has won many awards from websites like\u00a0Urban Spoon and TripAdvisor for its food and customer service. This past summer it took\u00a0fourth place in the North American Gelato World Tour in Austin, Texas. Says\u00a0Giuliani, \u201cEven in the winter time, gelato still accounts for 50 percent of our sales. Gelato in the summer time, of course\u2014you have your line-up out the street.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u00a0ascribes\u00a0Stella Luna\u2019s\u00a0success\u00a0to quality products,\u00a0customer service and a\u00a0seating-friendly caf\u00e9 format. She says winter brings\u00a0a\u00a0higher demand for take-out gelato, while over-the-counter\u00a0sales are helped\u00a0because\u00a0the caf\u00e9 interior\u00a0is warm and inviting, making gelato a reasonable\u00a0indoor choice.<\/p>\n

Stella Luna opens daily at 8 a.m., as opposed to 11 a.m. for\u00a0Menchie\u2019s and Pure Gelato. Giuliani says they cater to every pocket\u00a0of the day, from early-morning risers to\u00a0lunch goers to\u00a0after school, in that\u00a0they also offer European-style breakfasts and pastries. Street value plays a huge role, too,\u00a0as the\u00a0caf\u00e9 draws different clienteles throughout the day. \u201cYou have to think of each slot and how you can service that slot, notwithstanding that you still have to offer a premium product,\u201d Giuliani says.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Street smart. Stella Luna Gelato Caf\u00e9, on Bank near Sunnyside. [Photo \u00a9 Selin Kum]<\/figcaption><\/figure>Pure Gelato\u00a0enjoys strong\u00a0street value, as well, but owner Tommy says its<\/em> atmosphere is more modern and lively,\u00a0brightly coloured. The contrast with\u00a0Stella Luna\u2019s dark wood furniture and auburn atmosphere seems to show that these two gelato places appeal to different ranges of clientele.<\/p>\n

King says it helps that Menchie\u2019s customers can personalize their frozen yogurts with sprinkles and gummy bears and such. He credits this feature with helping keep sales alive in\u00a0winter. \u201cPeople like to be in control of their experience, so this isn\u2019t just the traditional way of getting a cold treat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tommy observes\u00a0that for\u00a0selling a small-ticket item, location is key. \u201cYou never want to be somewhere where you don\u2019t have people walking by, especially when you\u2019re selling a five-dollar product.\u201d Winter hits hard, with its huge reductions in sidewalk traffic. \u201cThat\u2019s when you hope the summer comes early, and you hope it lasts long.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Front page photo \u00a9 Selin Kum]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What does it take to sell gelato or frozen yogurt in an Ottawa winter? Three savvy vendors spill trade secrets and cold facts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":9593,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9281"}],"version-history":[{"count":96,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10492,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9281\/revisions\/10492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}