What drew you to Oak Bay for your business?
My background is geography and I spent a long time looking for a spot to open a shop. Oak Bay has it all: it's a vibrant community with lots of new families coming to this area. Our shop is in great proximity to the beach, schools, the soccer field and the rec centre. It's also got great parking on the streets and a bus line that runs right by it. It had everything we were looking for.
Where were you born? And where did you grow up?
I was born in Austria. My mom is Canadian so we moved here to Victoria when I was 15, but she grew up here. I live in Saanich today.
Your LinkedIn profile shows you made a big career switch in 2015. How did you get into the ice cream business?
I always had an entrepreneurial spark so in year three of my biology degree at UVic, I wanted to switch to business. But talking to counsellors, they said I'd have to go back to year one which I didn't want to do. So, I rode out the biology degree and then took a job in the government doing data analysis, eventually working my way up to database administration for geographical data. But I just found that sitting at a desk was unfulfilling.
When my wife and I had our first child, we took some time to go back to Austria and travelled to Italy. We were sitting on a patio drinking Aperol Spritz, having gelato, and got to talking about our future. I was dreading going back to work and my wife suggested we try something different. We brainstormed. I always enjoyed baking and cooking. I had an ice cream maker so when we got home, I started playing around. I was still working part time so I'd bring stuff in for my colleagues to try, and they wanted to buy it. It started as a kind of joke side project and now we're a store with 30 wholesale outlets.
What makes 49 Below unique?
We drive ourselves to be the community ice cream shop. We do some weird flavours but one thing we really like to do is collaborate with other businesses. We've started the upcycle program where we take bruised or imperfect produce. We cut out the bruised bit, then process it down and turn it back into ice cream. We also get citrus from some of the bars in town, like Clive's, that use the zest but don't use the juice. We gladly take it.
We also do a fun thing called a 'tub takeover'. In the past, we'd do it almost once a month where we'd get rid of all our 12 flavours and come up with 12 brand new flavours for one day based on current events or pop culture. Recently we did '90s hip-hop-inspired flavours (like Baby Got Baklava and Minty Fresh Prince).
On top of that, every September we have a colouring contest where kids can invent ice cream flavours. Then as a team, we take our 12 favourites and turn them into actual flavours. It's a lot of fun.
You're bringing something from 49 Below to a party. What are you bringing?
One of my favourites is lemon swirl. Then I'd take a look at what we have that's fun. We just did a bubble mellow. Fun fact: bubblegum flavour is comprised of strawberry, vanilla, orange, and banana! We made our own bubble gum ice cream with house-made marshmallows.
What are you listening to these days?
One of my favourite bands is Jungle. We also just hired a new person in the kitchen and she loves '90s hip-hop so we're going through that quite a bit.
What are you passionate about outside of work?
My children. My son is going on 10 and my daughter's turning 7 next month. I also love to travel and spend time with my wife. We closed the shop down last January and took the whole family to Japan. It's easy to get around, the people are super friendly and the foods I really enjoy.
What brings you joy?
Being able to create something that brings other people joy.
