The Story of Kelly's Famous & Cookie Dough Creamery

Hello! We are Kelly and Rob Hammersmith. We'd like to tell you the story of how Kelly's Famous came into being.

Back in 2010 we, as well as Kelly's parents (Bill & Janet Howard), opened Farmhouse Ice Cream Parlor in Marysville, Ohio. 

About five years later we came up with a great idea for a new ice cream shop concept. And in February of 2016, we opened Cookie Dough Creamery in Worthington, Ohio.

Over the following four years we made and sold 115,000 pounds of edible cookie dough. That’s over 57 tons! But because we were first and foremost an ice cream shop, and ice cream pairs so well with cookie dough, we sold even more ice cream than we did cookie dough. We sold 140,000 pounds of ice cream. That's 70 tons! Combined we sold a quarter of a million pounds of ice cream and cookie dough. 

After having to close our shop in 2020, we heard from our family, friends, and the nearly 20,000 fans of our Facebook page, about how sad they are that we closed, how much they miss us, and how much they wish we would open up again. The people clearly wanted our products back. Here are just some of the recent comments posted to our Facebook page:

What made our edible cookie dough so unique and popular?  Answer: It was the recipe Kelly invented that produces cookie dough that stays soft when refrigerated!

When we came up with the idea for Cookie Dough Creamery, I (Rob) stepped back and let Kelly have total control over the recipes for the cookie doughs we were going to offer in our shop. But I did have one request. And that request was due to the health department requiring edible cookie dough to be served refrigerated. That requirement created a problem for me.

I told Kelly that I don’t like the texture of cookie dough when it’s refrigerated, or even worse, frozen. I don’t like hard, stiff, and crumbly cookie dough, like the pieces of cookie dough that are in Ben & Jerry’s, and all the copycat cookie dough ice creams.

I told her, the cookie dough I want to sell should be the same experience I had sneaking a spoonful from the bowl behind mom’s back when I was a kid. When I did that, the cookie dough was soft. I could push it with my tongue up into the roof of my mouth. I could feel, and even taste it in my cheeks. I told her, it’s not the same experience when eating hard, stiff and crumbly cookie dough, because it’s not the same texture. She agreed, and took on the challenge of replicating that texture and experience even when the dough is refrigerated.

But accomplishing it wasn’t as easy as she first thought. When you make cookie dough, and then refrigerate it, the dough will just naturally turn hard, stiff, and crumbly. And that’s all Ben & Jerry did when they invented the first cookie dough ice cream. They just took a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe, removed the eggs, and used heat treated flour. That's it. They did nothing more. And all their copycats did the same, and as a result we had hard, stiff, and crumbly cookie dough ever since.

Kelly spent four months trying all kinds of tricks. Some tricks would produce a spongy dough. Not good. Not the right texture for cookie dough. Other tricks would produce a fluffy dough. Again, not good. Also not the right texture for cookie dough. Another trick was to make it with pudding mix. Not good. Again, not the right texture for cookie dough (were we serving cookie dough or pudding?). And sometimes the texture was just right, but the flavor was now way off. She kept on trying.

After many, many trials, she finally nailed it. She had me taste her latest attempt, and it was soft and just the right flavor. She did it! She created edible cookie dough that keeps a soft texture when refrigerated! 

Unfortunately we had to close the shop in 2020. We made the mistake of choosing what turned out to be a dying mall. We literally watched 65% of the retail shops in the mall close and leave like an endless parade over the four years we were open. By early 2020, the retail foot traffic in the mall was pretty much non-existent. Most of the retail spaces had been converted into service businesses like gyms, fitness coaches, salons, and doctors offices. It wasn't a "shopping" mall anymore. But we were still required to pay the high rent that assumed it still was one, and the landlord refused to renegotiate.

Turns out they refused to renegotiate because they were in the middle of selling the mall. And due to the retail activity at the mall having completely died, the only buyer they could find bought it with the intention to tear 87% of the mall down and replace it with two 10 story office buildings. Our location was the text book definition of a "deal mall". 

This was the second time we had an ice cream shop of ours burned by significant change in commercial retail real estate dynamics. The first time being our Farmhouse Ice Cream Parlor in Marysville, OH, where after other entrepreneurs could see the success we were having at our location, two frozen custard shops as well as a rolled ice cream shop decided to open up near us, one literally 30 yards around the corner from our door, and another right across the street. Our market went from being lucrative to being over saturated in less than 12 months. 

The mall dying on Cookie Dough Creamery was like pouring salt in already existing wound of ours. And then the pandemic arrived and we watched the world fall apart. As a result of experiencing so many things out of our control that determine our destiny as a retail storefront business, any thoughts we entertained of investing in the build out of a second Cookie Dough Creamery location (and a third ice cream shop location for us) were extinguished. We were done gambling in the commercial retail real estate game. As a result, we did what we needed to do to move on with our lives, and Cookie Dough Creamery became nothing but a memory for us. 

But after a five years of people begging us to come back, it became obvious that we had to do something, even if it meant not getting back into the commercial retail real estate game and building out a new Cookie Dough Creamery location. 

We brainstormed, and we realized that we don't need to invest in the buildout of a 3rd ice cream shop to give our fans what they desire. Instead, all we need to do is to help existing and future ice cream shop entrepreneurs succeed by enabling them to create their own unique custom versions of the Cookie Dough Creamery experience.

We came up with a business model where we simply sell ice cream shops our edible cookie dough mix and let them run with it as their own brand with their freedom to do with it what they want. 

To use an analogy from the sports world, we're going to pass the ball to them so they can get the score. We're more than happy to get nothing more than a credit for the assist, as long as we don't have to get back into the commercial retail real estate game. 

And from that epiphany Kellys Famous Foods LLC was born!

When ice cream shops buy Kelly's Famous Edible Cookie Dough Mixes, they are given dozens of edible cookie dough recipes, some of which we used at Cookie Dough Creamery, and some new ones we created after we closed. The can make the soft when refrigerated edible cookie doughs our Cookie Dough Creamery fans enjoyed, but they can also create soft when refrigerated edible cookie dough flavors we never even thought of. 

While we miss our store, it makes us happy and filled with pride knowing that with our Kelly's Famous offerings, ice cream shops are able to create their own unique and branded versions of the Cookie Dough Creamery experience that our customers loved so much. And we will spend the rest of our lives trying every new flavor they come up with!