the creamery

The Penny Ice Creamery opened August 24th as the only artisan ice cream shop in Santa Cruz, California where the finest ice cream, sorbet and treats are made daily in house from scratch.

The Penny Ice is the result of Chef Kendra L. Baker and business partner Zachary E. Davis' combined efforts and passion for food. Together they cultivate a unique opportunity, inviting the community to take a look behind the scenes into their daily production. The open kitchen and showcased production room allow everyone to see what goes into making their delicious treats.


Chef Baker's intriguing menu selection centers on what is abundant and available in Northern California, in the changing seasons. This philosophy is emphasized by the use of local and sustainably grown ingredients. The region's best organically cultivated and wild fruits, vegetables, flowers and herbs are the cornerstone of the menu. Likewise, The Penny Ice Creamery takes pride in using only organic dairy, eggs, and sugar.

The operations of The Penny Ice Creamery are designed and executed at every phase to promote the sustainability of the business, the environment, and the community. Efforts include strict attention to resource use, minimizing our carbon footprint, and a goal of zero waste.

We recognize that much of the environmental impact caused by the food we produce takes place before it reaches our kitchen. For this reason we strive to make the most responsible purchasing decisions possible with regard to ingredients.

The Penny Ice team, in collaboration with local farmers, ranchers, foragers, and artisans, is committed to facilitating a net regenerative impact on the community.

All paper products used by The Penny Ice Creamery are 100% recycled and biocompostable. Packaging and take-away containers are also biocompostable.

In creating the store, The Penny Ice Creamery worked with Nielsen Architects and Santa Cruz Green Builders to follow Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) best practices during the design and construction.

The Penny Ice Creamery builds on the foundation of an abundant and available regional bounty. The simple, yet unique selection of house made ice cream, sorbet, frozen novelties, and retail goods emphasizes the use of premium, local, sustainably grown, and humanely farmed ingredients. We infuse a cooperative spirit in all efforts to bring about the finest, organic focused, frozen treats and accompaniments.

A few of the local individuals, farms, and purveyors we source from include Rebecca King at Garden Variety Cheese, Dirty Girl Farms, Frog Hollow, Route One Farms, Belle Farms, Hamada Farms, Happy Boy Farms, Bee in Harmony Apiaryand Verve Coffee Roasters.

Slow Food - CAFF - Think Local First Santa Cruz - Monterey Bay Green Business - Santa Cruz Clean Ocean Business

Q What is so special about The Penny Ice?

A The Penny Ice Creamery is at the forefront of Third Wave Ice Cream™. We combine traditional culinary methods with modern and whimsical flavors to devise truly unique ice cream creations. We take great care in sourcing each ingredient that goes into our ice cream, and we’re the only ice cream shop in Santa Cruz that makes ice cream completely from scratch.

Q What do you mean "the only ice cream shop in Santa Cruz that makes ice cream completely from scratch"?

A We’re the only ice cream shop in town with a licensed pasteurizer. This means we’re not forced to buy a pre-mixed ice cream base, but instead we’re free craft each recipe to yield the ultimate flavor profile. This also means we can select each ingredient that goes into our ice cream individually, and we can make sure that no artificial flavors or preservatives get in. That's why we say it's "Made From Scratch™."

Q Where does The Penny Ice name come from?

A The way it was told to us, in 1847 Carlo Gatti arrived on streets of London where he became the first person to sell “penny ice,” what we know today as ice cream. His delicious frozen confection was a luxury previously unavailable to the average person.

The Penny Ice Creamery follows in Gatti’s tradition of offering luxurious ice cream to everyone who comes through our doors. And like Gatti, who never heard of preservatives or artificial flavors, we use only real, delicious ingredients.

 

Q I’m a farmer/rancher/grower/forager/artisan and I would like to offer my goods, what do I do?

AStop by the shop and ask for Kendra or Zach, we practically live here! If that doesn’t work for some reason then give us a call at (831) 204-2523 or send an email to info@thepennyicecreamery.com. We look forward to hearing from you, but please understand that we are very selective about who we work with.

 

Q Do you have a product that is [insert culinary style and/or dietary requirement here]?

A We make all of our products in house and they change often so we can’t guarantee that something you saw one week will be available the next. We generally have at least two vegan/dairy free scoop options. Beyond this we recommend that you ask any of our friendly and knowledgeable staff regarding the ingredients of a particular item. We are always trying new recipes and looking for ways to make our treats accessible to a wide range of diets. Send us an email or fill out a feedback form in the shop to make a suggestion. Please understand that we are a small operation with limited resources, and it may not be possible for us to sustainably provide for every diet on a daily basis. If you are interested in having us cater an event with specific dietary requirements, we are happy to work with you to meet your needs.

 

Q Do you cater? What size events can you handle?

A We are equipped to easily handle guest lists up to 200 people, beyond this we may require additional resources and will work with you and/or your event planner to make everything run flawlessly.

 

Q Are all of your ingredients organic?

A We use 100% certified organic dairy, cane sugar, and eggs in our ice cream base. Wherever possible we use organic flavors. Sometimes we may source from small growers who exceed the requirements for organic, but for whom organic certification is prohibitively expensive. Occasionally we simply may not be able to find a certified organic source for a given ingredient, or we may choose a local non-organic purveyor over factory organic. And in some very rare cases we may decide that the price for the organic version of a specific ingredient is simply not financially sustainable. In every case we carefully consider the environmental and social impacts of our sourcing decisions.

Q I noticed you say “local” a lot in your marketing, what does being local mean to The Penny Ice?

A It means that our ingredients come from Northern California, and whenever possible from the Santa Cruz area. We’re locally owned and operated, and we work with local providers for our service needs. Some of our purveyors include Dirty Girl Farms, Glaum, and Verve Coffee Roasters. Christian Nielsen is our architect, our builder is Santa Cruz Green Builders, our plumber is Cris Reed, our electricians are Tor Stark and Don Hartley, and our man who knows everything is Paul Ronzano. Our Internet comes from Cruzio, and we bank with Lighthouse. We are a member of Think Local First Santa Cruz.

Q Are you green?

In our personal lives we have many years of commitment to sustainable business practices, and we proud to put this commitment into action every day at The Penny Ice. We encourage zero waste by recommending a tasty cone (edible packaging!), but for those wanting a dish we offer biocompostable containers. These containers, along with our nutrient rich eggshells and other organic material, are a valuable resource for local growers, and we divert everything we can to them. Currently Love Apple Farm takes all of our compostable material. We make every effort to purchase from purveyors using reusable packaging, and we buy in bulk to cut down on waste. We recycle everything we can. In the first half of 2010 we completed a major remodel of our building following LEED best practices, and we continue to pursue resource saving and renewable energy sources.

:: Download our Media Kit :: Download our Grand Opening Press Release ::

Recent Coverage

• The New York Times
• Via Magazine

Our Phone Call with the Vice President of the United States

About The Penny Ice Creamery

The Penny Ice Creamery combines fresh local ingredients in small batches to create delicious artisinal ice cream. As one of the smallest dairy manufacturing plants in California, our production from all organic dairy and sustainably grown ingredients is done in the shop in full view of our visitors.

About Chef Kendra L. Baker

California native Kendra L. Baker grew up with a love for the traditions of local and seasonal Northern California cuisine. After earning her Bachelor's Degee in Language Studies at UC Santa Cruz, Kendra took her first formal step into the cooking world working under Jim Denevan at Gabriella Café in Santa Cruz. Inspired by this experience she chose to attend one of the nation's preeminent culinary arts programs at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. Her experiences there included an internship at the Castle Hotel and Restaurant in Conwy, Wales; an adventure that prompted her upon graduation to travel abroad once again, this time to France as an apprentice with the Yves Thuries group at Le Grand Ecuyer and Le Musee du Arte Sucre in Cordes Sur Ciel.

Her talents focusing on pastries and confections, Kendra next took a position as pastry assistant at the highly acclaimed No. 9 Park in Boston, alongside another California native Pastry Chef Kristen D. Murray, whose influence furthered Kendra's desire to master the realm of the pastry chef.

Returning to California, Kendra settled in San Francisco, where she was the opening Pastry Chef at the popular Mission District bistro, Bar Tartine. She worked closely with Tartine owners, and James Beard award winning pastry chefs and entrepreneurs, Elizabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson. During her two years at Bar Tartine, Kendra received praise from critics including Michael Bauer of the San Francisco Chronicle, and in 2007 received the Best Pastry Chef Critics Choice Award from San Francisco Magazine. Having risen to the top of the San Francisco restaurant scene, the logical next step was the Executive Pastry Chef position at the internationally renowned, and two Michelin star recipient restaurant, Manresa, in Los Gatos, California.

At Manresa, Kendra's full range of talents was on display and she worked with chefs and pastry chefs from around the world such as René Redzepi of Noma in Copenhagen (recently named as the world's best restaurant). With her unique cuisine development methodology and distinctive culinary vision fully matured, Kendra is thrilled to apply her creativity and talents to a new ice cream and dessert offering for Santa Cruz, California.

About Zachary E. Davis

A foodie since his first outing with his grandparents to Santa Cruz sushi hotspot Pink Godzilla, Zachary E. Davis brings to the table over a decade of management expertise and background in lean solutions for startups, most recently as Senior Manager of Product Development and Operations for Adgregate Markets in San Francisco. His previous jobs include indie filmmaker, and seven years at UC Santa Cruz as a Digital Media Specialist. He holds an MBA in Sustainable Enterprise from Dominican University of California where he developed a deep understanding of the interactions of financial, social, and environmental capital, and a BA from the The Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington in Comparative Religion and Cultural Anthropology.