Dear LSC Ice Cream Eaters & the curious,
Thank you for your patience. First of all, we would like to thank you all for your support and kindness over the last few years. We met some really great people, were involved in some super fun events and truly loved all the smiles we got from serving you ice cream.
As some of you know, our plan was to open a brick-and-mortar shop. As some of you also know, that seemed to be taking a LONG time to happen. We found a place that seemed perfect, made agreements with the landlord, and began the expensive, long, and mind-bogglingly complex process of getting the location permitted, planned, and built out. Now, we were prepared to have disagreements with any landlord, and we were even prepared to deal with someone who was less than honest. What we were not prepared for was a straight-up crazy person. Over time our landlord violated every agreement we came to, in ways that benefitted no one. It gradually became evident that the landlord of the property was simply not capable of completing any business transaction, and that the shop would never open in this location. During this time, we had invested enough money in the location that opening at another location was not feasible unless we recovered nearly all of our current investment. It wasn't a fortune by any means, but to Lake Street it was life or death.
After careful consideration, and a hard honest look at the food truck industry, we decided to shut down our operation. The only way we saw to move forward with our business was to open a shop. Much of our investment may be recoverable in court, but this is a long and disturbing process with no certain outcome, and we feel the shop needed to be open this summer or not at all. We in the food-truck business (especially those of us making ice cream) really need the summer months' income to make up for the slower winter months.
I am sure some of you are aware of the challenges the food truck owners have endured recently in dealings with the cities and health department. It's been extremely frustrating to be so harassed and nickel-and-dimed when trying to survive as a small business owner. These factors, as well as rising food costs, rising gas costs, and the dip in sales across the board for food trucks, sealed our decision to fold the truck and move in other creative directions. A food truck is a LOT of work, and if you don't make a certain amount of money, it just ain't worth it.
To all those people that are sad to see us go, we will miss you more than we can say and are so sorry to disappointment you all. But being creative types, we will surface again with other types of delightful adventures. Hopefully some of you will stay tuned for those adventures.
Best of luck to all the wonderful and kind food-truck friends we met along the way. We will come support your amazing food and say hi!
Sincerely,
Beth & Tim
Lake Street Creamery
