Courtesy of Sugarwitch
Sugarwitch opens its first brick and mortar in the Patch neighborhood this Friday.
A popular ice cream brand is ready to welcome fans into its first St. Louis storefront. Sugarwitch (7726 Virginia Avenue), the ice cream sandwich company owned by married couple Martha Bass and Sophie Mendelson, will open the doors to its brick-and-mortar location this Friday, promising frosty treats, floats, coffee and more varieties of the staples that have helped it build a loyal following over the past year.
"The first pop-up we did blew our expectations out of the water," Mendelson says. "We stockpiled two weeks of production that would thought would be a week of sales, and we sold out in three hours. We thought, OK, we need to figure out how to make more ice cream right now."
Bass and Mendelson founded Sugarwitch in Columbia, Missouri, in 2019, though the roots of the brand began three years earlier. At that time, the pair were living 2,000 miles apart and realized that they were both separately making ice cream sandwiches as a way to pass the time, decompress from work and bring joy to their friends. When they were finally living together in Columbia as graduate students, they combined forces and began selling their sandwiches under the Sugarwitch name at pop-up events and farmers' markets around town.
Courtesy of Sugarwitch
Sophie Mendelson and Martha Bass are thrilled with the reception to Sugarwitch.
Last year, the pair relocated to St. Louis for Bass' job and brought Sugarwitch with them. They had planned on continuing the pop-up model that was so successful in Columbia but instead forged a more formal arrangement with restaurateur Ben Poremba to regularly sell the sandwiches out of an Airstream at his restaurant, Olio. The sandwiches were a hit, and as they took on more staff and developed a larger following, they realized that a permanent home was the next logical step.
"At first, we were very focused on a kitchen that would be big enough for all the freezers we were going to need and weren't really thinking about a storefront," Mendelson says. "But then we found this building. Ben was so instrumental in that and told us we had to look at it. At first, we thought it was too big, but he was right; it was amazing. We thought that, if we could figure out how to do this, we had to."
The building Bass and Mendelson found is the old Carondelet Bakery (most recently operating as Adelle's Bakery), a property that dates back to the 1870s and is said to have been a bakery since 1878. As Mendelson explains, she and Bass are thrilled with the space and have worked diligently with contractors and various other building professionals to put their own Sugarwitch twist on the space while balancing its historic character.
"We've been putting together the Sugarwitch presence while preserving the building's history in a visible way," Mendelson says.
Fans of Sugarwitch's pop-ups can expect the core ice cream sandwiches they have come to love at the new location, as well as offerings that incorporate seasonal flavors into the rotation. They will also continue to offer the their popular Choco Taco, a Sugarwitch version of the Klondike treat of the same name which was indefinitely discontinued this summer.
Additionally, Bass and Mendelson are thrilled to be partnering with Fox Park roaster and cafe Coffeestamp for their coffee service. Though they will not have an espresso machine, they will be offering drinks based around cold brew and nitro cold brew. Drinks include both mainstay and seasonally rotating soda fountains floats and other frothy coffee-based treats. They will also be doing some novelties that combine coffee and tea with Sugarwitch frozen items, such as a horchata push pop that uses Coffeestamp's famous Latin American-inspired beverage and Big Heart Tea matcha cold brew. However, Mendelson is excited to see how things evolve and looks forward to new flavors and concoctions as they grow into the space.
"It's amazing to have this fluid dream team of people contributing their expertise and creativity to what we are building," Mendelson says.
Sugarwitch will be open Fridays from 3-9 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.
