Living the ice cream dream

Days off used to be infrequent for Paul Abdul-Raymond, but now every day’s a sundae.

The Winnipeg entrepreneur is the owner of the Classic Scoop, an ice cream trailer that customers can book events such as birthday parties, corporate functions and community festivals. Abdul-Raymond and his staff show up to serve classic cones with customizable toppings, ice cream sandwiches and seasonal specials.

It’s a lot of work but it’s also a lot of fun for the 39-year-old, who left a lucrative but stressful job at a health-care company to get the Classic Scoop going in spring 2025.

Customers affirmed his career pivot from the start.

“The first month we were in business, I could see how much people appreciated what we offered,” Abdul-Raymond said. “It was instantaneous. I had no regrets.”

The Classic Scoop served ice cream at more than 40 events from the start of May to the end of September last year, building a roster of clients that includes the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba and United Way Winnipeg.

The company’s bright pink, six-metre-long, 2.5-metre-wide trailer is on track to do even better business this summer.

Abdul-Raymond has also started a second business. In April, he opened Cedar Creek Coffee, a 70-square-foot café nestled in the lobby of an office building at 1020 Lorimer Blvd.

“Whatever the Classic Scoop made last year, I reinvested into Cedar Creek Coffee,” he said. “I always think it’s important to reinvest in yourself.”

Running two businesses has led to numerous 16-hour days lately, but Abdul-Raymond is comfortable with hard work. He worked at his father’s business for many years, spending 12 years in post-secondary education along the way. He earned two undergraduate degrees and a master of science before studying to become a doctor.

By the time he finished medical school, he realized he wanted to go into business rather than pursue clinical practice. He worked as a pharmaceutical consultant before landing a job at a health-care company that creates blockchain solutions.

Abdul-Raymond operated as the head of business development, collaborating closely with the company’s C-suite while working remotely from Winnipeg. The job required domestic continental and international travel every two weeks and 20-hour workdays were common, even when he was at home.

Eventually, the whirlwind pace caught up with him. In his mid-30s, he started experiencing cardiovascular issues — chest pain that showed up intermittently over the course of several months.

“There was really no differentiating factor between on and off the clock,” he recalled. “As much as I loved working for the people I worked for, I realized at a certain point that it wasn’t really a tenable plan to continue moving forward with that job.”

With his wife and two young children on his mind, Abdul-Raymond resigned. By that point, he had already been dreaming about running an ice cream store. Opening a brick-and-mortar shop wasn’t feasible, so he purchased his trailer and opened the Classic Scoop.

The Classic Scoop has five casual employees and Cedar Creek Coffee has three. Abdul-Raymond plans to build the companies into legacy businesses that his children can take over some day.

If they do, they’ll be third-generation ice cream retailers. When Abdul-Raymond’s father was a child, he sold ice cream on the street to help support his family.

Abdul-Raymond’s story of leaving the corporate world to start his own ice cream business isn’t uncommon, says Stephen Christensen, who has worked in the industry for more than 25 years — first in his native Australia and now in the United States.

“We get a lot of people like that,” said Christensen, executive director of the North American Ice Cream Association. “I think it’s a mix of the uniqueness of the industry and the joy that it brings, coupled with people’s memories and experiences of (eating) ice cream.”

Based in St. Louis, Mo., the association represents around 2,000 members. It doesn’t keep data on how much revenue the ice cream industry generates annually, but Christensen says business is booming.

(Canada’s dairy industry as a whole generated $9.15 billion in revenue last year, according to statistics from the federal government.)

The ice cream industry is not recession- and pandemic-proof, but in times of economic stress, people still find money to spend on ice cream, Christensen said.

“(When) people are putting off the trip to Disney… a trip to the ice cream shop is like a 15-minute vacation,” Christensen said. “Things are generally a lot better after a couple of scoops of ice cream.”

Abdul-Raymond agrees. He says that the best part about running the Classic Scoop is bringing joy to children.

“When you serve them ice cream and this big smile blows up on their face, it’s probably one of the most satisfying parts of the job,” he said.

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca