The company plans to unveil its first California-based store in March. However, in preparation for the opening, the team has embarked upon a tour-de-force ice cream trunk journey around Los Angeles. Jeni’s is an Ohio-based dessert company renowned for its creative and consistently fresh and delectable desserts. Their website touts, “We Make Better Ice Creams” and though that may seem like a lofty claim, Jeni’s has the track record to prove it.
Their ice creams are literally built from the ground up, or should we say the cow up. The milk comes from grass-grazed cows and ingredients that they blend, bake, peek, chop, skin, pulverize and even blowtorch themselves. You won’t find any chemical dyes or artificial flavoring in Jeni’s ice creams. It is clear that this is a premiere company that doesn’t cut corners when it comes to serving their customers.
Jeni's debuted in the area with their food truck
Flavors like Brambleberry Crisp, Riesling Poached Pear Sorbet, and Yazoo Sue with Rosemary Bar are some of the eclectic, fresh, delicious flavors you can expect from Jeni’s. Like the flavors Jeni’s creates, the founder and owner, Jeni Britton, is anything and everything but boring. The company claims they are “Ice Cream Explorers” a title evidenced by their wide variety of flavors. You won’t find any boring vanilla here; instead, Jeni’s revamps the classic flavor by introducing Orchid Vanilla ice cream and ice cream sandwiches.
Jeni’s is also a certified B Corporation, endorsed by the international nonprofit B lab as a company that meets rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and most importantly, transparency. This is a company that only purchases fair-trade certified ingredients, like fair-trade-certified vanilla and work with people they, and you, can trust.
But who is Jeni? She studied art at The Ohio State University, worked in a bakery, and has a lot of interesting hobbies. She left college to do her own thing in 1996 and opened up her first ice cream shop. Jeni is ever-developing new flavors, working on a book (of which she already has two), directing art campaigns, dedicating her time to Local Matters, a Columbus-based non-profit she co-founded, and spending time with her husband and two children.
The new, interesting, heart-and-soul driven ice cream shop will fill a substantial gap in the dessert market in Los Feliz. Though Los Feliz is home to frozen dessert spots like Pazzo Gelato, Froyo Life, and the chain Scoop, none of these stores pushes the envelope the way Jeni’s does. Judging by how popular the Jeni’s pastel-hued Ice Cream trunk is, it is clear that Jeni’s will curate a unique audience, tired of the banal, without too much competition.
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream has a simple objective: to create high quality foods that support local business. Jeni’s takes helping out the local community seriously; in 2014 alone the company purchased 800,000 pounds of goods from local businesses! Each dollar spent here aids the community and supports the local food movement. The mission of Jeni’s is not only commendable, but also refreshing, and Los Feliz is ready to welcome Jeni’s with open arms!