Beloved Ohio shop Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams is finally moving to Dallas, with its first shop in North Texas landing in Deep Ellum. The news was first reported by CultureMap and confirmed with a Jeni’s spokeswoman and City of Dallas records.
The company has a sweet success story, having been started by a woman named Jeni Britton Bauer in Columbus, Ohio, after she read Business Plans for Dummies. In just under 20 years, Britton Bauer has grown the business to more than a dozen major cities across the U.S., including recent Texas additions in Austin and Houston. Britton Bauer’s “scrappy climb to the top,” as described in a profile on The Helm, included taking on investors in 2016 to extend the company’s growth.
Jeni’s has been featured by the Food Network, Martha Stewart and Food & Wine. She won a James Beard Award for her cookbook in 2012. Vice President Joe Biden visited Jeni’s headquarters in 2019, and an Eater story from April 2020 says he spent more than $10,000 on ice cream during his campaign. Britton Bauer says in one interview that “I’ve always been a Democrat, I guess, but I think all of us have these nuances to what we believe that can’t be summed up by a political party, and I’m just trying to make the world better in the way I want to make it better. So I’m having a big problem with the division going on in this country right now.”
Britton Bauer calls her store openings “crazy,” noting that “people cry” at some events.
“I talk to every single person; there’s hugging and storytelling,” she tells The Helm. “It is crazy and wonderful.”
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in Dallas will open at 2649 Main St. in Deep Ellum, near Merit Coffee Co., Easy Slider and Revolver Taco Lounge. The opening date is so far unknown, a spokeswoman says.
Scoops of ice cream are the thing here. Food Network highlighted the Queen City Cayenne ice cream on the show The Best Thing I Ever Ate. The shop sells Cookies in Cream, Green Mint Chip, Gooey Butter Cake, and Salty Caramel as well as more adventurous flavor combinations like Wildberry Lavender and Goat Cheese with Red Cherries. Some are dairy free, like the Lemon Bar and Caramel Pecan Sticky Buns ice creams.
While The New York Times has spotlighted Jeni’s ice creams several times, it was also written about in 2015 and 2016 after listeria was found in the factory. Britton Bauer said in an NBC News interview in 2018 about the listeria outbreaks, “We changed everything we do. ... We’re a better ice cream company — because of what we went through there."
Jeni’s is available in Dallas right now in Central Market, Whole Foods, Royal Blue Grocery and Foxtrot shops in Dallas. The company also ships pints nationwide.
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams will open at 2649 Main St., Dallas. See COVID-19 protocol here.
