Clover Ice Cream Parlor: Interview

Clover ice cream shop. After the interview with Fabrizia Ventura, the blog of Ristomanager continues to be tinged with pink. This week, in fact, the speaker is Ilaria Angellilo, a 35-year-old ice cream maker from Milan. The love between Ilaria and ice cream cones was born by chance, when her family took over an ice cream shop, the future Clover ice cream shop. And that's when Ilaria's life is divided into a before and an after.

Clover Ice Cream Shop

In the before there was a degree in Education Sciences and a long career as a community educator, in the "after" there is Clover. And there are the ice cream cones, the queues of customers, the accounting and existential balance sheets typical of those who have a business. Positive and negative balance sheets, which however do not discourage either Ilaria or her partner, responsible for the accounting part. She, on the other hand, is the creative one, who mixes and creates new flavours, because she is not limited to pre-packaged flavours. In a Milan of skyscrapers and hasty passers-by, in an industrial Milan, Ilaria believes in artisanal ice cream.

Clover ice cream parlor

And now, it's your turn.

Hi Ilaria, tell us who you are, how old you are and where you live.

Hi, I'm Ilaria, I'm 35 years old and I've always lived in Milan.

What did you do before becoming an ice cream maker?

Clover ice cream parlor

I have a degree in Educational Sciences, and I have worked as an educator for more than ten years in various contexts, including prison, day and residential centers for the disabled, and minor communities.

What drove you to open an ice cream shop?

Clover ice cream shop

The proposal was made to me by my family, who had the opportunity to acquire an established ice cream shop, and I immediately accepted with enthusiasm. I have always loved the idea of working in the food field.

Are you excited to have undertaken this adventure or would you go back? What are the positive and negative aspects of your business?

Clover ice cream parlor

The question is a bit ambivalent: in some ways I really like it, but the difficulties are very high, and sometimes I almost want to go back... but the positive aspects are many, and on balance I would no longer change my current job with the previous one.

Among the positive sides of this activity there is the possibility of being creative, of inventing products, flavours, recipes, formulas. Creating something that makes customers smile and improves their day, even for just five minutes, is a great feeling.Just as hearing comments like "I was anxiously waiting to come and get your ice cream", or "I come from Trezzano specifically to get ice cream from you" makes the tiredness of an entire day disappear in a second.

On the negative side, especially when you are the owner of the business, there is the constant worry of making ends meet, the renunciation of evenings out, weekends, holidays, and the problem that there is a huge difference in work between winter and summer, which creates problems both in managing the staff and in choosing the products to put on the counter (and let's remember that even if in winter the customers decrease, the rent of the place and the salaries of the staff remain unchanged...)

Your personal thoughts on those who open ice cream parlors or catering businesses in general in Italy

Clover ice cream parlor

I don't know about other types of catering businesses, as far as ice cream parlors are concerned I see that many people rely on "turnkey" franchises that offer semi-industrial products with the promise of easy and profitable work.

So we find hundreds of ice cream shops around that offer ice creams with standardized flavours, so much so that many people are now convinced that ice cream shops always offer "pre-packaged" products in sachets.
On the other hand, especially among young entrepreneurs, I see many people studying and opening ice cream shops that use quality products and recipes, which are bringing artisanal ice cream back to very high quality levels. high.

It must also be said that opening a business in Italy is also a courageous choice: taxes, management costs and bureaucracy make it really difficult to manage a small business, which absolutely cannot be compared to a large company.

What would you recommend to someone who wants to open an ice cream shop?

Clover Ice Cream Shop

First of all, take ice cream making courses not sponsored by companies that sell semi-finished products. Look for serious schools that explain the fundamentals of ice cream making, how to balance mixtures, how to create your own recipes from scratch. Also, study the area really well and make an accurate business plan. The market is now saturated, and in order not to fail it is necessary to differentiate your offer by calibrating it based on the target of the territory.

And prepare for a life full of sacrifices, the work of an ice cream maker is truly tiring from all points of view, both physical and mental. There were days in which I worked 17 hours straight, constantly lifting buckets and trays of 10-12 kilos and constantly moving from the laboratory to the counter, but they have to be taken into account, especially in the event of the sudden absence of some member of the staff: the ice cream shop has timetables to respect, and it is up to the owner to cover the uncovered shifts, as long as possible.

Do you thank anyone in particular for the goals achieved in your career?

Clover ice cream parlor

Well, I still can't say that I have achieved particularly important goals, but I certainly have to thank my family, who allowed me to start the business believing in my abilities (without an initial investment, in Italy, it is very difficult to open your own business), the teacher of the ice cream making course, Alice Pagani, who teaches her students the basics of ice cream making with great professionalism, and my partner, who takes care of the bureaucratic-administrative issues of the shop and supports me in moments of discouragement, always making me re-center myself on future objectives and not on the small failures or adversities that I may encounter on a daily basis.