By Amanda Mechell
It may have taken Christine Cairo almost half a lifetime and a pandemic to become “The Ice Cream Chick” — but in retrospect, the wait was worth it.
When she saw a storefront open at 46L Gerard St. in downtown Huntington in 2021, she knew it was meant to be—specifically because of a key ingredient that came with it.
“I wanted my own place, and it came with an ice cream machine,” Cairo said.
She was at the end of a rocky road, so to speak. It’s as simple as that.
Now, The Ice Cream Chick shop has become the flavor of the town, with Cairo receiving a chance to be her own boss and call her own shots — an opportunity she had long wanted.
“I’m the owner, operator, maker of the ice cream and everything else — a jack of all trades,” Cairo said.
As for the store’s name? She had a little help there from a friend.
“We’re just shooting the [expletive], and he came up with the name, and that was it,” she said in her matter-of-fact style. “It was a good name.”
Cairo, 55, isn’t one for mincing words. As a small business owner, she doesn’t have the time, especially since she didn’t start out in the food industry. A resident of Smithtown, she attended Dowling College, earning a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s in secondary education, but she only taught on a military base for a year and a half while her husband, Paul Cairo Jr., served in the Marine Corps.
After that, she was a stay-at mom, occasionally waitressing while raising three children. As her children grew older, Cairo became more involved in the restaurant business and managed a restaurant in Massapequa for 15 years.
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the storefront became for sale, and Cairo bought the business.
The ice cream parlor sells a range of items. All the ice cream is made in house, and there are a variety of flavors to choose from, as well as vegan, dairy-free and sugar-free options. The sugar-free options are in big demand at the Ice Cream Chick.
One of the signature flavors is Reese’s Pieces Cookie Dough, but Cairo ultimately makes up any flavor that sounds good because she likes to eat ice cream.
“If it’s a good price or I got it for free, I build a flavor around it,” Cairo said.
She also offers seasonal flavors, including eggnog praline and the Grinch. Milkshakes, floats and sundaes are also on the menu.
The base of these flavors is created by recipes that are 102 years old but tweaked to make the flavors a little different, Cairo said.
In addition to ice cream, Cairo makes homemade chocolates, such as nonpareils, peanut butter cups, jelly logs and almond bark, as well as homemade pickles.
“I knew [the pickles] would be popular, and they are,” Cairo said.
The hardest part of starting her business was redecorating. The shop’s design was similar to how the previous owner decorated it, except for the colors. The yellow floors and red walls were replaced with pink brick and black-and-white checkered floors. Cairo said she did not have a plan for redecorating, but it “took on a mind of its own. I add to it when I feel like it.”
As well, Cairo sells candles and stuffed animals, bringing variety to the business during the slower parts of the year.
Photo by Amanda Mechell//Long Island Advocate
“Owning a business has its good times and bad, but the best thing about being a business owner is, I don’t answer to anyone,” Christine stated plainly.
The challenges of owning a business are few and far between for Cairo, though. The biggest challenge is, “When you have to lift something heavy or turn a screw that you can’t turn it, and that’s it,” Cairo said.
Every small business owner knows the one thing that is vital to a business is customers. When engaging with customers, Cairo said she believes “there are some amazing people out there, and you meet so many of them in a lifetime.”
The ice cream shop is also a family affair. Two of Cairo’s children work there: Bella, 22, and Nikko, 14.
Bella Cairo graduated from Hofstra University with a degree in international business in May and has worked at her mother’s ice cream shop since it opened. Bella serves customers in the front of the store and runs Ice Cream Chick’s social media pages.
The aspects of the job she enjoys most are interacting with the customers and sharing the different ice cream flavors on Instagram and TikTok, Bella said.
Sometimes, working with a parent can be challenging, but there is time for work and a time to fully enjoy each other’s company without bringing work home, Bella said.
Saturday nights are the busiest time at the shop, but getting into a routine when she starts her day at noon, staying organized, and preparing the ice cream and toppings for the day ahead of time ensures Bella is ready for a rush, she noted.
Nikko Cairo, a student, also works at the ice cream parlor and mainly helps pack customer orders from DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub and other delivery services. Occasionally, he helps make the different ice cream flavors and restocks them, but he also helps bring in the signs and decorations from the outside when it is time to close the shop.
Before the shop opened, Nikko helped paint the bricks pink, hang decorations, write signs and lay floor tiles.
Angela Kresse, Christine’s mother, also helps out when she can. “I’m the organizer of where things go,” Kresse said. “I tell them where to put things because I can’t stand clutter and a mess.”
Kresse’s favorite thing about the store is the decorations. To make things cheaper, while the shop was preparing to open, Kresse bought everything from a thrift shop, sending pictures to her daughter to ask if she liked the items.
Christine plans to expand her business by opening another location and says that hard work is one of life’s great blessings. “You shouldn’t be afraid to work hard,” she said. “If you can physically do it, you’re blessed.”
