Hi all, and welcome to this week's edition of "The Scoop", from your BFF's over at Mad Maggie's Ice Cream (don't I sound terribly hip, using cool shorthand that the kids use in their Instant Messaging? Well, at least lie to me that I do, ok?)

Last week's cold weather has been disaster for our early season cash flow, but we're muddling along -- maybe a few days late on a couple of bills, but they're getting paid eventually! The forecast for good weather this week has us hoping that we'll be back up to normal volumes soon.

People's Choice Ice Cream!

This is Memorial Day weekend, and as usual, this Sunday, May 27 from 10am to 1pm, The Pat Whitley Restaurant Show on WRKO - 680AM, will be holding their semi-annual Peoples Choice Ice Cream stand show.

Listen In...(www.wrko.com) The call in number is: 888-434-6464

Don't forget to call in on Sunday morning and vote for us!

Back At The 'Shoe

We've had a lot of inquiries as to when we'd start supplying our ice cream pies for the Horseshoe Grille, in North Reading, and I'm happy to report that I dropped off the first batch (Coffee Mud Pie) last week! They went through them surprisingly quickly, so I'm dropping off a batch of Mint Chip pies today, and another batch with Lemon-Mango sorbet over the weekend.

For those of you who remember the old Horseshoe as a seedy little townie bar, let me tell you, things have changed! The new 'Shoe is about the nicest restaurant in the area, family oriented, and very reasonably priced. I've eaten there probably twenty times in the past six months, and I can honestly say that I've never had a bad meal.

Steve's Picks: The Pulled-Pork Quesadilla is one of my favorites. But lately I've been ordering their Sirloin Salad, which is a South Beach/Atkins friendly meal of fresh garden salad with huge pieces of about the tastiest sirloin tips you'll ever have on top. I told owner, Pat Lee, that that was the best salad I'd ever had in my life the first time I ordered it! Also, their Nachos are by far the best in the area -- piled high with pulled chicken or pork, and their ribs are delicious. Even Maggie and her tough-to-please sister, Priscilla love them!

Stop on by and try them, make sure you order the Mad Maggie's pie for dessert! Make sure you tell them that you came on the advice of Mad Maggie's, and that they need to start using our ice cream on the rest of their desserts! (A little persuasion by our loyal followers can't hurt, right?)

Mother's Day Giveaway

I realized that I forgot to mention our Mother's Day giveaway in the last newsletter, but hopefully most of you either already knew about it, or else you saw the ad in the North Reading Transcript.

Anyway, we did our normal "Mom's Cone is Free!" deal on Mother's Day, and luckily we had a little better weather than last year, when we had 8" or so of water in the store for Mother's Day!

We gave away almost 100 free cones, and most were very appreciative.

We *did* have one woman who made a stink out of having to pay for the two cones that her children got -- she somehow decided that since we were giving *her* a free cone, she ought to be able to get free ones for her kids as well. When the person serving her mistakenly only charged her for one cone, when she had been served three, then tried explaining that she had mis-charged her, this woman became belligerent. I told her to take her three cones, for the price of one, and she *STILL* griped. There's just no pleasing some people!

For those of you "Mom's" out there who claimed your free cone, thanks for coming by, and we hope you all had a great day!

(And an early reminder: We do the same thing for Dad on Father's Day!)

Ice Cream Cakes

Our cake business is picking up so much, I've had to train a couple of our serving staff to help out with the decorating. This year my superstar serving team member (and niece) Melissa took a cake decorating class. And we just hired a new team member, Rachel, who is also taking the same decorating class. So between the two of them, me, and Maggie, I think we should be able to keep up with the cake orders. I think we'll need all the help we can get with these, as we're getting two or three orders a day lately, and I expect that those numbers will increase once the North Andover location is up and running.

We also took a tip from some friends of mine in the business down in Pennsylvania, and now offer our cakes with either two layers of ice cream, or with one layer of ice cream under a layer of yellow cake. I made one for Maggie's birthday last week (heck, I even tricked her into decorating her own cake...!) and it was delicious!

So, if you have a special occasion (Father's Day, Graduation, Birthday, Retirement Party, etc.) think about ordering one of our cakes. You'll be the hit of the party, rock stars will invite you backstage, the opposite sex will find you irrestible, complete strangers will walk up to you on the street and hand you money.

(We can't verify *all* of those claims. But at least you'll have a *great* cake to eat!)

Steve Goes to the Prom

I never went to my own prom when I was in high school -- I had made a pact with a bunch of friends of mine that none of us would go, then watched as one by one, they all caved into pressure from the butt-in-ski guidance counselors, and got fixed up with dates. I was too stubborn (and too awkward around girls -- I probably couldn't have found a date had I wanted to!) to give in, so I was the lone holdout.

Anyway, I didn't *really* go to the prom this year, but Janae, my right hand around the store, did. Janae is a senior at Greater Lawrence Regional Tech, and told me where the prom was being held, at the Caselton Banquet Center in Windham, NH. So I showed up last Friday, and spent some time with Janae's parents, Eric and Pam, while we waited for the Grand March.

Janae is one of my favorites, and she always comes to work dressed to work -- she's not one of the ones who comes in with painted nails and makeup! But on Friday, she looked like a princess: In fact, she tells me she ended up being chosen as one of the "Princesses" of the prom!

Here's a link to a photo Janae's dad snapped of us -- I'm the one on the left, in case you can't tell:

Janae is a great example of the type of growth I get to watch in the kids over the years. She started out as a quiet, shy 15 year old, and now practically runs the place, and has *no* problem whatsoever giving it right back to anyone who teases her -- even me!

Somber News

I had a really tough week with our serving team this week, and it had to do with someone who hasn't worked a single shift for us yet.

I wrote in the last newsletter about one applicant who got herself to the top of our hire list by being a frequent visitor, and cheerfully asking how she could get a job on our team. I've come to know an older sibling of hers over the past years, as she happens to be friendly with one of my own kids from school, so I had a pretty good feeling about this girl becoming one of our stars.

She had emailed me a couple of times since we had hired her to work out the final scheduling details, and she seemed to be genuinely excited about joining our team. I had scheduled a Saturday afternoon training shift with her and a couple of others.

On Friday night, I was helping out the kids at the window, and I noticed her in line -- she's a hard one to miss, as she has about the prettiest smile you'll ever see. I said hi to her, and she asked me if I had a second to talk to her. She had on a hospital wristband, and told me that she hadn't been feeling well, and that her parents had taken her in for tests, and the doctors had found a problem that's going to require surgery, so she'll likely be spending the summer recuperating, and won't be in any condition to be working.

She had tears in her eyes, and was so apologetic about having to miss her first shift -- here she was, facing an illness and surgery, and she was worried about not being able to live up to her commitment. I just wanted to give her a big hug!

I told her to forget about us, and to just focus on getting herself healthy again, and that we'd have a spot for her whenever she was well enough to take it. And to not even *think* about going to work for someplace else when she's ready, as we weren't going to let her go anywhere else.

We'll all be pulling for her to get back to good health, and looking forward to the day when she's feeling well enough to start working with us, but even without working a single shift, she's already "one of ours".

North Andover Update

The rough plumbing is done, the basement floor is now poured, and I even managed to corral Maggie last Saturday and drag her to the tile and lighting stores to make the final decisions on the interior design elements. It's odd to spend a few thousand dollars on fixtures, especially when we've run the North Reading location on such a low budget, but I think we did fine, and I'm certain that the new store is going to look *MAHVALOUS* when it's finally completed.

We're hoping that the drywall and flooring is installed in the next week, then the interior counters and final electrical connections remain.

BJOTW

This week's joke was contributed by loyal newsletter reader Tracy, who sends me a bunch of these.

Thanks Tracy!

Flavor News

We had quite a rush over Mother's Day weekend, so my production team and I have been pretty busy just replenishing our standard flavors.

Still, we had time to try a couple of new ones:

• Strawberry Chip: A customer suggested that we try making this. We make Black Raspberry Chip, and it is one of our top sellers, so this made a lot of sense to try. Let us know what you think of it!
• Lemon-Mango Sorbet: I tried this a few weeks back, and I liked it, but I didn't think I added enough lemons to it, so it was more "Mango" than "Lemon". This time, I kept Sara and Lauren busy on Saturday afternoon by having them squeeze a whole bag of lemons, and the results are excellent -- this has a wonderful, citrusy taste to it.
• Very-Berry Sorbet: I found a nice medley of already cut up fresh-frozen fruits at my local restaurant supply house, so I decided to try making a sorbet from them. Boy is this tastey! It has raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries in it. This might end up being one of our regulars, as not needing to prepare all that fruit made it a pretty simple recipe to make.

Staff Profile

Well, although we've got just about everyone from last year's serving team back, we've got a few new kids this year. We've hired around five new kids so far, mainly because (a) many of the kids are busy this time of year with school, sports, and spring holidays, and (b) we've hired a few extras who are planning to work mainly at our North Andover location once the store there is ready to open.

So, I get to pick on one of the new kids this week, so I think I'll choose..... Alex!

Alex (actually, Alexandra) is an old friend of the family (or, at least, as much an "old friend" as a 16 year old can be...), as she and my daughter Amanda were in the same group of friends through elementary and middle schools. Alex's mom, Sheila, happens to work with Maggie as well, so we've stayed in touch with them.

I was a little wary this spring when Maggie told me that Sheila had asked her if we'd consider hiring Alex for the summer. Hiring someone you know can be a little difficult, as if it doesn't work out, things can get a little uncomfortable, but Maggie insisted that she thought Alex would be a good worker for us.

Well, much as I hate to admit it, she was right! Alex has jumped onto the team, and worked a couple of busy shifts, and she is quickly becoming one of my favorites, as she works hard, never complains, and seems to always be coming out with funny comments. She's an early season leader for our unofficial "Rookie of the Year".

Alex worked our Mother's Day afternoon, and we were a little shorthanded, as only me and one other team member were available. From the time she came in at 2 o'clock, until about quarter to six when she was scheduled to leave, she didn't stop -- I told Maggie that she was like the Energizer Bunny. She went home one exhausted scooper, but she also made one thick wad of tips, as she only had to split the tip pool with one other.

Alex is a Sophomore at Andover High, and dances (Ballet) in her free time -- in fact, she tells me her year end recital is this weekend. Here's a link to a photo of her from our website:

If you find her serving you at the window, make sure to say hi to her, and let her know you read about her in the newsletter!

Newsletter Coupon

(We've got a couple of cheerleaders on the serving team, I think it's rubbing off on me. My favorite cheer: "Rah Rah Ree. Kick 'em in the knee! Rah Rah Rass. Kick 'em in the other knee!")

Come on by on Memorial Day Weekend, tell us you saw this coupon in the newsletter, and we'll give you a free item with any other purchase! So bring someone who's got a lot of money to spend, and yours will be free!

One free item per customer, and obviously, the lowest priced item is the free one -- hey, we weren't born yesterday!

Well, I think I'm scraping the bottom of the brain bucket, so that's it for this week. Looking back on it, I ended up writing a lot more than usual, but it's a busy time of year. If you made it this far, give yourself a pat on the back (Or better yet, get over to the store and reward yourself with a sundae!)

Have a great Memorial Day weekend, and don't forget: Just say NO to bad ice cream -- visit Mad Maggie's instead!

See you all soon,