A beloved but beleaguered creamery, which suddenly shuttered all of its locations earlier this year, may soon be back in business.
Since late last year, all 12 of Brooklyn-born scoop shop Ample Hills’ locations have been closed, but they may soon exit their deep freeze.
Fast Company has the scoop that, according to two sources “familiar with the company’s operations,” the company’s original founders — the married couple Brian Smith and Jackie Cuscuna — have bought their business back from the Oregon-based laser-maker Schmitt Industries.
Schmitt Industries, which also manufactures propane tank sensors, purchased the dessert brand for $1 million in 2020 after it overexpanded, melted down, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and went up for auction.
At the time, it had expanded from the couple’s humble ice cream-hawking pushcart to 14 locations across the Big Apple, Miami and Orlando — as well as a Red Hook factory in Brooklyn.
The sale wasn’t the end of the sweet treat-vendor’s money woes, though, which became clear this past Dec. 19 when Schmitt Industries announced online that “Ample Hills Creamery will be shutting down operations for at least a week, effective immediately.”
They never reopened, and Fast Company learned that the company recently filed for receivership (a potentially quicker, less expensive alternative to bankruptcy) in New Jersey.
Despite the unsavory financial situation, Fast Company’s sources predict that the sweets purveyor’s third rebirth may be on the horizon.
Brian Smith and Jackie Cuscuna, the husband and wife co-founders of Ample Hills Creamery. STEPHEN YANG
Ample Hills’ Gowanus location in 2017. STEPHEN YANG
The scoop shop has become known for creative, over-the-top flavors with fun names. STEPHEN YANG
The brand remains popular locally despite the business’s financial turmoil. Dan DaoThe publication also traced a confusing maze of legal documents registered to a New Jersey-based investor that appear to show the recent exchange of the company’s IP, suggesting that Ample Hills’ ashes are still hot on the coals.
During their break with the brand, Smith and Cuscuna stayed in the industry, launching a new ice cream concept called The Social, with a brick and mortar location just blocks from their original Ample Hills location in Prospect Heights.
Ample Hills — which is named for a line in the Walt Whitman poem “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” — did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment.
