Q&A with Holiday from OddFellows Ice Cream Co.

We recently spoke with Holiday Dmitri Kumar a fellow blogger from my name is holiday who along with her husband are opening an artisanal ice cream shop- OddFellows Ice Cream Co. in Williamsburg this summer with Chef Sam Mason (Empire Mayonnaise, wd~50, Tailor, Lady Jay’s). OddFellows will be serving up homemade (i.e. base pasteurized in house), old-fashion, all-natural ice cream with a modern twist. The shop will be located at 175 Kent Ave - next door to Bright Horizons and across from Soul Cycle.

It came rather organically. When I was pregnant with my twins a couple of years ago, Sam came over one night with a pint of his pretzel ice cream. That ice cream? Like nothing I ‘d ever tasted before. It was transcendent.  I must have said over and over to my husband, “You guys need to sell this stuff.”  I got it into his head and then he got it into Sam’s. The rest, as they say, is history.

My husband and I both, at separate times, lived in Williamsburg. Sam lives there still. Despite all the hype, we love and continually return to Williamsburg. There are many amazing restaurants popping up left and right in the hood, but surprisingly, no real ice cream parlor. So it seemed like the perfect spot to plant our mom-and-pop shop. With OddFellows, we want to create a space that evokes nostalgia, a ‘happy place’ for children and adults alike.  Everyone loves ice cream and our flavors are guaranteed to delight young and old. 

It’s not easy. Starting a new business feels like we’re having our third baby … in two years!  There’s been plenty of blood, sweat and tears poured into this little shop of ours - as well as love and passion. It’s like motherhood in that respect, and like being a parent, some days are easier than others. But coming back to the ice cream shop, I think it’ll be a fun place for a child to grow up. What kid could say no to an all-access pass to ice cream? Also, the way I see it, a start-up business provides a good opportunity to teach children first-hand about hard work. Maybe one day Layla and Alexei will be helping mama and papa scoop ice cream.

He’s a fun guy with a wacky sense of humor, and a good friend to my husband. As a chef, he’s truly innovative. He’s like a kid with a chemistry set - constantly experimenting with unconventional ingredients and making wacky flavor combos… but he’s doing it for a sophisticated palate. People in the city know him for wd-50 and Tailor, and now he runs a bar (Lady Jay’s) and mayo business (Empire Mayo) in Brooklyn. With OddFellows, he’s going to bring a whole new lexicon to ice cream-making and get people to taste ice cream anew.  We saw him doing a crazy skirt steak ice cream on Iron Chef, which the judges loved … now he’s got a whole new laboratory, um kitchen, to work in.

Memorial Day weekend. Fingers crossed.