How the Founders of a Famed But Failed Ice Cream Chain Plotted Their Return
A year after selling and exiting their Ample Hills business, Brian Smith and Jackie Cuscuna decided to give another ice cream shop a go.
Brian Smith and Jackie Cuscuna in front of The Social, in Brooklyn's Prospect Heights neighborhood.
Photographer: Christine Siracusa for The Social
When Brian Smith and Jackie Cuscuna opened their first Ample Hills Creamery in Brooklyn in 2011, they sold out of ice cream in four days. Ample Hills flavors mix in peppermint patties, cakes and cookies and more — it's almost a pure expression of childhood id. The company grew slowly at first, but then Bob Iger, then chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company, ordered some pints and fell in love. He shared the ice cream with friends; enthralled celebrity endorsements soon followed, as did the prospect of mass-distributed Disney-themed ice creams and scoop shops, including at Walt Disney World. That required an ice cream factory and money. By 2018, Ample Hills had brought in $17 million in equity financing.
The possibilities quickly overwhelmed the small company. Smith and Cuscuna had little business or technical expertise to guide them and no sense of how much money they were spending — until it was about to run out. Ample Hills filed for bankruptcy in March 2020, the day before Covid-19 shut New York City down. Eventually, the company sold for just $1 million to a West Coast precision machinery manufacturer. Smith and Cuscuna concluded that their future lay elsewhere.