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Q: What do you mean by "homemade?" Do you really make it at home? And what's different about it versus the other guys? A: First, no, we don't make it at home - we make it in our store in Seaside (where it feels like home, sometimes). It IS "just like" the ice cream you can make at home - fresh, creamy, and the process is physically similar (except we get to use a much bigger machine). See here for how we do it. The difference is partly the process and partly what goes in the ice cream (and what doesn't go in). Our is a "batch freezer" process that only makes five gallons at a time, allowing us a great deal of control over the quality of the ice cream. The other guys sell stuff made in a factory somewhere (using the "continuous freezing" method) and their goal is making lots of ice cream to be served...sometime, somewhere. That means they have to include stuff like preservatives and other artificial stuff to make certain that their ice cream "holds." They also add whey powder and other ingredients to stretch their ice cream, and they whip in lots of air - that stretches it even further (it does nothing good for the taste, however). We know ours is better for so many reasons - click here to get the entire story. Q: Why is the store called "Zinger's?" A: It's a play on our last name - a mispronunciation, actually. Our last name is spelled E-X-I-N-G-E-R, and it's pronounced just like it's spelled (EX in jur). We've been called Zinger (heck, we've been called many things), but we did happed to remember a time just before we bought the store when we were greeted as Mr. and Mrs. Zinger, and we figured that Zinger's would be easier to say and remember, so...that's what we did. We're still called "Zinger" - much more than we used to be. We wonder why? Q: Is "Zinger's?" a franchise? Can I buy one? A: Incredibly, we're just a Mom & Pop operation (although we're a really cool Mom & Pop place). We've been asked many, many times to set up another store in ________ (you name it - Beaverton, Seattle, Oklahoma City...we have many fans in many places). We have no "Ben & Jerry's" aspirations for world dominance (and look what happened to them), so for now, this is it. There IS a way you might get the chance to run a Zinger's - you can run THIS one, someday. We're not getting any younger, and the day will come (in the next 5-10 years, longer if our 401K becomes anything less than a 201K) to see if Social Security still works, as we won't be. Working, that is. We're putting together a list of "interested people" who someday might want to chuck the yoke of corporate responsibility and be their own boss in Seaside, Oregon, running what might just be the most successful homemade Mom & Pop operation you know of. If that's you, send an email to mike@zingersicecream.com with "Takeover" in the subject matter. We'll add you to the list (still a short one as of this writing). Q: Why aren't you open all year? A: The short answer is
"we're old and tired." As we said above, we make our ice cream
(and waffle cones and fudge) and that takes more effort than just opening a box
and selling you something someone else made some time ago. More than
three-quarters of our ice creams are consumed in the "season" from
Memorial Day to Labor Day. Starting up is a process that we can pretty
much determine at will - just order all your supplies, make a whole bunch of
stuff, and away you go (OK, it's not that easy). Then, once we start, we
throw all our energy (as much as two middle-aged people can muster) into making
ice cream and fudge on a consistent basis. We go nuts all summer long as
we're busier than a mosquito in a nudist camp. Then, we hit the fall
season, when folks think of school, football, and other stuff, and we start to
wind down. Stopping is harder than starting, as we try to time it so we
don't have a whole bunch of fresh stuff around getting old. You wouldn't
like that. So, closing is a timing issue, and it seems that we do it
earlier each year because you eat so much of our good stuff.
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This
website, like our ice cream, is homemade. It's also (c) Zinger's Inc,
2005. |
