Nearly a decade after its inception, local ice cream brand Milk Jawn will soon open up its first brick-and-mortar location in South Philly.
Founder Amy Wilson, along with co-owners Ryan Miller and Cathryn Sanderson, signed leases for both a storefront as well as a new production facility, both of which will be located in East Passyunk.
The 500-square-foot storefront will be located at 1439 E. Passyunk Ave., at the corner of East Passyunk and Dickinson Street. The 2,600-square-foot production facility will be at 1303 E. Passyunk Avenue. Wilson is aiming for the store to open in the spring of 2022.
“Opening up a shop was always the goal,” Wilson said. “We’re really excited to be moving into a permanent location.”
Wilson originally began creating her own ice cream as a hobby in her kitchen back in 2012. She soon began distributing her product to friends and family, and as its popularity rapidly grew, it became more than just a hobby.
“My husband said, ‘You have to do the ice cream thing. You have to share it.’ I said, ‘OK, well, we’ll give it a try,’ ” Wilson said.
Wilson then partnered with longtime friend Miller, who has previous experience in the culinary industry, with Sanderson joining them not long after. The trio officially established Milk Jawn as a delivery-only business, but it soon expanded and began selling at various pop-up shops in the spring of 2020.
“Our popularity started to grow, and delivery started to get harder than we could handle,” Wilson said. “And we said, ‘OK, this seems like it could really work. Can we really make a full-fledged business out of this?’ So that’s when we decided that we should do a storefront.”
Wilson said that customers will be able to purchase pints, cones and cups of their most popular flavors. In addition, a rotation of assorted sundaes and ice cream specials will be featured at the shop.
She also envisions establishing many more Milk Jawn storefronts throughout the city in the future.
“The nature of our pop-ups sent us to all different parts of the city, and so we’ve grown this customer base,” Wilson said. “I definitely see a few locations in our future.”
