Ruby Jewel in the Press!
Portland Tribune: Have a sandwich for dessert
Have a sandwich for dessert Ruby Jewels made with carbon offsets, local milk By Barbara Mitchell
Local entrepreneur Lisa Herlinger started selling her tasty Ruby Jewel ice cream sandwiches, which come in beguiling flavors such as honey-lavender ice cream with lemon cookies, at the Portland Farmers Market less than three years ago.
Since then, the company has expanded as naturally as the ingredients Herlinger uses to create her snacks. You can find Ruby Jewel treats in local markets and co-ops like New Seasons, at Hot Lips Pizza and even at the green-certified Doubletree Hotel in the Lloyd District.
So what’s the fuss all about?
If you’ve ever sunk your teeth (and taste buds) into a Ruby Jewel ice cream sandwich, there’s no explanation necessary.
A devout foodie with a commitment to doing one thing and doing it well (a philosophy she borrowed from famous burger chain In-N-Out), Herlinger uses all fresh, natural and local ingredients, and all of her sandwiches are handmade by her, her sister and one other employee.
Making ice cream sandwiches isn’t your typical career calling, but neither is making a natural, sustainable, high-end, handmade version of said treat. The Ruby Jewel story is a natural evolution and extension of its creator.
Herlinger went to college to be a physical therapist, but she had an epiphany that took her in a different direction.
“I worked in the sports medicine world mostly as an aide and an assistant for physical therapy, and what I really liked about it was the hands-on work,” she says. “I just decided that wasn’t going to be my passion in life, and food always has been.”
A veteran of various restaurant and catering gigs, Herlinger enrolled in Denver’s Johnson & Wales University, where she pursued a condensed course in culinary arts. After an internship at the Sunriver Resort she moved to Portland in late 2001 and worked at a variety of local restaurants, including Milo’s City Cafe, Higgins and Park Kitchen.
While working with the Portland Chefs Cooperative, she volunteered to work the booth at the Portland Farmers Market and was instantly smitten.
“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so cool to be on the other side of the market,’” she laughs. “I just loved the farmers market. I still do.”
A trip to Los Angeles had exposed her to a shop in Westwood that made ice cream sandwiches with home-baked cookies and Dreyer’s ice cream. Priced at a dollar apiece, the sandwiches attractes a constant line out the door.
A natural entrepreneur (she’s made and sold her own jewelry), it wasn’t long before Herlinger connected all the dots — which included a wealth of experience making ice cream while at Milo’s. She applied for a booth in the farmers market and was accepted.
The rest, as they say, is history. Ruby Jewel ice cream sandwiches were an instant success.
“They started selling out every week, and people were just like, ‘Where can we buy them?’ ” Herlinger says. “And then I started realizing ‘Wow, I think it really is a cool idea.’ I started assessing and going to (grocery) freezers and seeing that there’s nothing quite like it. There’s a lot of rice, soy and nondairy little treats, and then there’s Toll House and Klondike.”
Lots of ice cream, little trash Herlinger’s ice cream sandwiches are to her competitors what Stumptown is to Starbucks. She used her restaurant connections to quickly find the best local suppliers of natural ingredients, like Junction City’s Lochmead Dairy, which creates the ice cream base from Herlinger’s own recipe.
She’s also stayed focused, maintaining a product line with four main flavors, plus seasonal variations like the pumpkin ice cream and ginger cookie.
That’s paid off in spades. In addition to stores throughout Oregon, the sandwiches now are carried by Whole Foods and Metropolitan Markets in the Seattle area, and were just accepted into 28 Whole Foods stores in Northern California.
And while you might feel guilt for indulging in her treats on a caloric level, Herlinger has made a commitment to being a zero-waste company. She calculates the amount of energy needed to make each Ruby Jewel Treat and buys carbon offsets through http://www.carbonfund.org.
“We don’t even have our own trash bin in the back,” she laughs. “Every once in a while we have a big trash can. I kind of joke that when we’re big we’ll probably have our own trash, but maybe not. We don’t throw a lot of waste into the trash and everything gets recycled somehow.”
It’s a tribute to Herlinger’s passion and commitment that in only a few short years, Ruby Jewel has grown from a farmers market stand to a business that produces more than 60,000 ice cream sandwiches a year. Her fans can’t say enough about the treats and their creator.
“Lisa had whipped up many a marvelous meal for me at Milo’s,” says Robert Amesse, a customer at the Northeast Broadway cafe and a longtime Ruby Jewel supporter. “I was only too happy to support her foray into the world of ice cream commerce. The product? It’s great! The chocolate cookie and fresh mint? My favorite! They say the proof is in the pudding, but for me I think it’s in the fact that I’m now wearing the largest trousers Ma Boyle and her cronies at Columbia Sportswear make.”
As for Herlinger, she’s thrilled to be living out her passion.
“I love doing something that people are excited about,” she says. “To just have a company that does good things and employs good people and people are psyched about being a part of at any level — it’s not at all I want to make a million dollars in the next year. That’s not what it’s all about to me.”
full article Feb. 2007