A family run ice cream parlor will soon increase its reservoir for the frozen treats it serves up.
Blank Slate Creamery, an award-winning downtown Ann Arbor dessert shop, is preparing to expand its operation by opening a production facility at 7879 Jackson Road in Scio Township.
The creamery in west Ann Arbor will take over about 3,200 square feet of space in a multi-tenant industrial building. Co-owner Janice Sigler said her team will begin producing ice cream there Aug. 7. They will make creamy confections for the entire brand and distribute them to two Blank Slate Creamery locations that are already up and running.
They’re awaiting city approval before they start accepting wholesale and carry out orders at the location later this year.
“We think that there’s a little bit of demand on the west side,” Sigler told Scio Township planning officials just before they approved a land use permit for the production facility July 10. “We often hear from our customers that they don’t like to deal with parking downtown and they would come more often if they didn’t have to deal with that. So we thought this would be a convenient way to accommodate.”
Sigler and her husband Jerry debuted Blank Slate Creamery’s flagship location at 300 W. Liberty St. in downtown Ann Arbor in 2014. It quickly became a fan favorite and has been recognized as the “best ice cream/dessert” sweet shop in the Michigan Daily and other local publications.
The Siglers opened a second location at 126 E. Grand River Ave. in Brighton in spring 2020.
Sales have gone up to the point that demand has outpaced supply at both shops. The new location will allow for a significant increase in production and storage. Renovations have been underway since January.
“We don’t have enough production space in our downtown location and we’ve kind of reached our capacity there,” Janice Sigler told What Now Detroit. “So we’re moving our production from Ann Arbor to this facility and we think that may give us an opportunity to pretty (easily) do some carry out from there.”
Blank Slate Creamery offers a menu of all-natural ice cream and sorbets. They boast dozens of flavors that include traditional fare like brown butter cookie dough and chocolate fudge brownie. They’re also known for some of their non-traditional scoops like lavender lemon honey and basil.
In addition to the waffle cones and dipping cups, Blank Slate Creamery’s flavor profile includes gluten-free and vegan options like sorbets made with coconut cream and oat milk bases.
They also incorporate cookies, brownies, ice cream cakes, pies and other treats into their arsenal.
“We’re definitely well known locally,” Janice Sigler said. “We attribute a lot of that to being downtown Ann Arbor and also students are a big part of our business along with the residential areas around our building.”
Most of the focus at the new production facility will be churning out product for the two main locations. But the team will use a small portion of the site to serve the public.
The Brighton and downtown Ann Arbor locations both take online orders that can be picked up in-store. The production facility will take online carry-out orders between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. They’ll limit them to about six transactions per hour and will only offer pre-packaged menu items like pints of ice cream and other novelties.
Blank Slate Creamery will also handle wholesale orders from the facility. Janice Sigler indicated they plan to sell their products to specialty markets and retail shops to get their treats on the shelves of local stores and restaurants.
“This is not intended to be a scoop shop,” she said. “We don’t have enough space for that. The buildout is already done. Probably close to half of the building is freezer space.”
That portion of the business still must get final approval from Scio Township’s board of trustees. Sigler hoped the special land use would go before them by the end of August. The planning commission already okayed the facility for limited carry-out and wholesale orders this month.
“We assume they’ll approve it since it was already recommended for approval. But we won’t be able to start until then,” Sigler said.
