28 flavors of house-made ice cream at new Sugar Queen Creamery in South Knoxville
It has taken a great deal of tenacity, faith and hard work, but at long last the family behind The Sugar Queen Doughnutry food truck is about to open The Sugar Queen Creamery on June 25.
Suvilla Gingerich and her daughters, Staci Meyer, Lauri and Allison Gingerich, started up their doughnut truck business in May 2019. It has been their dream since then to open an ice creamery.
After purchasing the former McLemore Florist building at 106 E. Young High Pike, Suvilla Gingerich’s husband, Merlin — who also transformed an old uniform truck into a doughnut truck — has totally transformed the building into their new creamery.
“Everywhere we go we always try to find a good ice cream spot,” said Allison Gingerich. “We grew up in Indiana and had a place we would always go to, but Knoxville didn’t have a homemade hard ice cream shop that was a family-friendly hangout. So, we decided to make ice cream.”
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The Sugar Queen Creamery will apply the same principles of the Doughnutry’s signature made-from-scratch yeast doughnuts to ice cream making.
The ice cream dipping cabinet will have room to carry 24-28 flavors. “When we are all said and done, we will have 15-20 standard flavors, dairy-free options and a sugar-free we are working on,” said Allison Gingerich. “We have more than 60 flavors we will rotate through.”
“Everything going into it will be scratch-made, including the brownies cut into the mocha brownie ice cream, swirls of lemon curd and fresh frozen fruit,” said Meyer.
There will be an oatmeal cream pie and Amish peanut butter and of course a coffee and doughnut flavor with real doughnut pieces.
The Sugar Queen Creamery will make its own waffle cones, chocolate fudge, chocolate and salted caramel syrups.
“We want people to think ‘I’ve never tasted something like this before’ and then they come back,” said Lauri Gingerich.
“This freezer will soon be stocked with pints of take-home ice cream, cookie ice cream sandwiches and chocolate chip cookie dough to have warm cookies at home,” said Staci Meyer, pointing to a wall of freezers. “We plan to launch a pint of the month club and host a giveaway for free ice cream for a year.” The Sugar Queen Creamery is making arrangements to have their products deliverable through LocoKnoxville.com.
Online ordering, pint of the month and pie of the month subscriptions are also in the works. “Due to customer demand, we will even have pints of the homemade ranch and beer cheese we serve with our pretzels on the truck,” added Lauri Gingerich. Head baker Suvilla Gingerich will have an evolving menu of baked goods.
“Honestly it has turned out better than we imagined,” said Lauri Gingerich. “We are extremely grateful. We cannot wait to serve this community and be a space for families to spend time.”
The family wanted a modern and open feeling for the building, something classic that wouldn’t date quickly, according to Lauri Gingerich.
On social media @thesugarqueencreamery, they gave away tickets to an exclusive tasting event on June 17. “They will each bring a guest and be the first to come in and try the flavors and go away with a goody bag,” said Staci Meyers. “Starting on June 20 we will be open to the public and then have a grand opening on June 25.”
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To start, The Sugar Queen Creamery will be open noon-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, noon-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday and closed on Sundays.
“Outside we have a big patio area where we will have a couch and chairs,” said Lauri Gingerich. “Around this side we have picnic tables and we will hang string lights and shade cloths.” They plan to fence off a play area and add a playhouse, too.
Two to three times a week they will rope off the front parking lot and hook up The Sugar Queen Doughnutry truck to make and sell doughnuts and occasionally have guest food trucks serve dinner.
The Sugar Queen Doughnutry will still be at the Market Square Farmers Market on Saturday mornings, at Creekside Food Truck venue, Central Filling Station, at the Chef’s Workshop weekly food truck rally and available to book for special events. They will continue with their sessions at Dollywood selling doughnuts June 18-July 9, then on and off through October.
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: South Knoxville, Sugar Queen Creamery offers house-made ice cream
