At Caffè Panna, Hallie Meyer serves up nostalgia with a twist
It’s always a good time for ice cream, there’s no doubt about that. But personally, I feel like there are two main times in life when eating ice cream is not a passive want, but rather a desperate need:
Scenario A: When I’m lying down under the covers ready to watch Netflix. This warrants a big, gooey bowl of mac and cheese (Kraft > Annies, sorry not sorry), or a big bag of chips (sour cream and onion, always). AND an entire pint of ice cream, obviously.
Scenario B: When I’m feeling anxious. No shame, but I don’t understand the concept of stress eating. In times like these, the only things I can stomach are cold foods in liquid form. Ice cream, to be precise.
There’s something about a big bowl of ice cream that instantly calms my nerves. 20% has to do with the temperature and how the cold soothes my insides. The other 80% is that it makes me feel like a child again. The good old days when my biggest worry was eating my ice cream fast enough before it could melt through the cone and into my hands.
I chatted with Hallie Meyer about the influence of nostalgia on her beloved ice cream and coffee shop, Caffè Panna. (If you’re unfamiliar with Caffè Panna and live in the Tri-State area, you must drop whatever you are doing and go visit them. Immediately). Here’s what Hallie had to say:
INNER CIRCUS: What do you think is so powerful about nostalgia and what role does it play at Caffè Panna?
Hallie: Ice cream is such an emotional food for people. Our customers get so excited when we make things that they love. For example, people go crazy for the thin mint flavors we do and they have extreme reactions when we sell out of something they love. That’s why changing the flavors all the time is a really fun thing. It also lets us speak to so many different people’s types of nostalgia. While one person might have a thin mint memory, another person might find an olive oil apricot inspiring, and another person might try a flavor that reminds them of their favorite trip to Italy. Nostalgia definitely plays a role in that way.
“That’s why changing the flavors all the time is a really fun thing. It also lets us speak to so many different people’s types of nostalgia.”
Not everyone is nostalgic for the same thing which is the fun of it. You could maybe define nostalgia as anything with an Oreo or candy, and those flavors I know will sell well, but the flavors that come from my heart tend to be fruit-forward. That said, there are other people who are inspired by fruit, so when we do a blueberry stracciatella or persimmon flavor, that really speaks to them, even if it’s a smaller group of people.
INNER CIRCUS: I’m so fascinated by all your crazy inventive flavors and your “Caffè Prawna” flavor for April Fools Day this year really got me. I loved seeing the comments like, “If you guys make it, I’ll eat it!” which really spoke to the love and trust people have in you and your brand.
Hallie: Those were the positive comments, but I don’t know if you saw the comments saying “Gross'' or “No!” Even those kinds of responses are so emotional. I mean, you don’t get that emotional about something you’re eating for dinner, but you do for something like ice cream.
Image Credit: Caffè Panna
INNER CIRCUS: People are very protective of their favorite comfort foods, for sure.
Hallie: Absolutely.
INNER CIRCUS: What does the process of creating these new flavors look like?
Hallie: It’s structured creativity, or planned spontaneity, because you can't have an operation that is producing thousands of pints a week accurately, labeled accurately, delivered accurately, and changing sundaes every day without structure. There is a different plan for pints, scoops, soft serve, and sundaes every week, and those are planned out 5 weeks in advance. That allows us to approach each flavor and cycle in an organized way.
INNER CIRCUS: Where does the inspiration behind these flavors come from?
Hallie: The inspiration behind the flavors comes from a lot of different places. The first is definitely the ingredients themselves. We’re so lucky to now be a place that a lot of people in the food industry go to. I’ll get a special delivery, for example recently these fantastic Alfajores, Argentinian cookies, from an awesome one-woman bakery which is such an inspiration. It’s great to feature a small business in a pint.
And then there are the ingredients we get from our awesome Italian porter Gustiamo. I mean, just looking at their catalog really gets me going. There’s an infinite number of flavors you can make from their amazing Sicilian pistachios, Tuscan olive oil, or apricot preserves. It’s crazy.
Beyond ingredients, it’s a very shared creative process so the team will sometimes have ideas. There was a team member this past April who brought us a Jamaican Easter Spice Bun and we tried it and wondered how we could turn it into a flavor. We geared that into production for Easter week and did a Hot Cross Bun flavor inspired by the Jamaican bread. There’s a lot of flexibility with flavors which lets us speak to people who may not have previously been spoken to with ice cream.
“There’s a lot of flexibility with flavors which lets us speak to people who may not have previously been spoken to with ice cream.”
And then we like to play around with combinations you would expect but taking a different direction. My favorite way to riff is starting with a PB and Jelly where we have a nut and classic grape. What if we took that in a different direction and instead of peanut butter, pair the jelly with pistachio? Fruit and nuts have always been an inspiring combination for me.
So, in summary, I’d say ingredients, people, my own heart, and spirit of fun, for sure.
INNER CIRCUS: Is the daily menu ever a cause of stress?
Hallie: It’s a method of stress relief to change the menu every day. If I had to pick one menu, I’d be like “Damn, I’m limiting myself so much!” Being able to change the menu is what I’m here for, to clench my creative muscles.
INNER CIRCUS: I want to go back to the inventive flavors for a second. As a beloved brand, do you feel any pressure or stress about people not liking these innovative flavors? Do you ever feel held back?
Hallie: No, I wouldn’t say held back. Some flavors come from my head, and others from my heart. Ultimately, it’s all from my heart but I know the patterns we’ll follow when we release a new product. Some things do surprise me like how well the Matcha Stracciatella sold. I thought that’d be too adult for people.
Things always sell, it’s just about if we’re going to sell 200 pints in a day, or 5 days. That being said, there are some tweaks to be made to make sure each menu is on balance speaking to as many different people as possible. That’s a super fun little game for me.
INNER CIRCUS: How do you want people to feel when they come to Caffè Panna and try out your products?
Hallie: We want to deliver treats that are unexpectedly and outrageously delicious even if that's a scoop of Vanilla with Sicilian olive oil or Cookies and Panna with a homemade Oreo brittle. We want to give you that surprise and delight feeling and we want to deliver it with warmth and hospitality.
“We want to deliver treats that are unexpectedly and outrageously delicious…”
INNER CIRCUS: Do you think you’re ever going to expand beyond ice cream?
Hallie: We’ve completely maxed out production in this location and physically cannot make any more ice cream in our 7-day week. We have 3 different business channels right now. The first is that we ship ice cream nationwide, the second is that we sell custom flavors to local businesses and specialty stores wholesale, and the biggest part of our business is selling from our store which involves delivery and online pick-up.
We cannot do any more in those channels right now, so we’re excited to get into a new space in Williamsburg which has the same model of an ice cream factory with a storefront. That’s definitely the model where you’re always having different in-store experiences at different locations, but everything is always made there. Our goal is not trying to be in Whole Foods, but servicing local businesses with custom flavors. That’s the heart of it.
“Our goal is not trying to be in Whole Foods, but servicing local businesses with custom flavors.”
Hopefully next up is pasta in the future. I’m waiting to get a good business behind me so they can help me sell ice cream behind the scenes.
INNER CIRCUS: How do you prioritize your mental wellness on crazy, stressful days. Do you have any rituals or routines that you stick with?
Hallie: I have learned a lot about this over the last 3.5 years of the store being open. I think a lot of it is about leadership. I want to say that I had to go through a phase of being at the store every single hour of the day, caring about every single detail, and being on my employees’ cases in order to get to this place now. We shouldn’t beat ourselves up if we’re in a place of imbalance.
What I do now is make sure I am doing the job of the highest and best use of my time. I also make sure I’m sleeping enough which is super important to me and get a workout 4-5 times a week that has nothing to do with my team and everything to do with me. I make sure I put my phone away when my husband and I are having dinner, so drawing that boundary is also important.
I definitely think if you told me all those things 3 years ago it’d be in one ear and out the other. But sometimes, you really have to go through these things to understand.
