Meet Ryan O’Hara | Owner/Founder, Big Spoon Creamery

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ryan O’Hara and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ryan, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Throughout our careers working as chefs in high end restaurants, we knew we wanted to start our own venture one day. We wanted to combine two of our greatest passions, food and people. Ice cream specifically was something that we were extremely passionate about and felt like we had a gift to be able to do something really unique. Birmingham is such an incredible food city and we were seeing so many great restaurants popping up, but not much happening in the dessert category. We knew that Birmingham would be receptive to our concept, and we were really excited about sharing our gifts and passions with our community.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Big Spoon Creamery is an artisan ice cream company that specializes in handcrafted local and seasonal products. We source ingredients locally as much as possible, and our menu changes constantly throughout the year to reflect each season. While we’re extremely passionate and proud of our products, our most proud accomplishment is the team that we’ve built. Our team is incredibly hard working, intelligent, creative, loving, passionate, and talented. They serve each other and our guests with such care and commitment to excellence, and we could never do this without them.

We started Big Spoon as a small ice cream cart over eight years ago, and we’ve been growing exponentially ever since. The next year, we grew to include an ice cream truck, and then opened our first brick and mortar storefront in 2017. After tremendous success at our Avondale storefront, we opened our second storefront in Homewood in 2019. Over the past two years, we’ve expanded to include more than a dozen wholesale partners, as well as a robust catering operation.

The journey is never easy, but we love doing what we’re doing and I would never trade it for anything else. There are a number of important traits in overcoming challenges, but I believe the most important aspect is being a great problem solver. Adversity and problems happen everyday when you own a business, so it’s crucial to be an elite problem solver and find creative solutions.

If there was one thing I want people to know about our brand and our story, it is our love for people. While we love ice cream, it would be somewhat meaningless if not for the people. We love the opportunity to serve our guests and provide them with excellent hospitality and help them create an experience with the people they care about. We love the relationships we have with our farmers and vendors. Most of all, we love our team and the opportunity we have to lead them and be a part of their lives. We love getting to come to work everyday and work alongside them to serve our guests and reach common goals.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Whenever I visit a new city, my plans revolve around food. I’m always so excited to research and explore the best restaurants, so that is where my plans would be centered with friends visiting. Breakfast/coffee from our friends at Hero Doughnuts, Punchlove Coffee, or June Coffee. Long lunches on the patio at Bottega or Chez FonFon. For dinner, I love El Barrio, Helen, or EastWest. And the sips/snacks/hangs can’t be beat at Golden Age Wine. For other non-food/drink activities, I love playing golf on one of the many great courses in the area or enjoying the outdoors at great parks like Railroad Park or Oak Mountain. Other fun outings in the city include seeing a Barons game at Regions Field, McWane Center, or seeing a show at one of the many great music venues downtown.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d love to recognize my former employers and mentors, Frank and Pardis Stitt. Both Geri-Martha(my wife and business partner) and I worked for them for about six years prior to starting Big Spoon Creamery. Our experience working under their leadership was instrumental in preparing us to run our own business. We obviously learned important practical skills working in their kitchens, but more importantly, we learned countless invaluable lessons about how to run a restaurant, how to treat employees and vendors, being consistent, having high standards, and so many more. Even after leaving their restaurants and starting our own venture, our relationship with Frank and Pardis has been a tremendous blessing to us, both personally and professionally.

Website: www.bigspooncreamery.com

Instagram: @bigspooncreamery

Image Credits
Todd Helzer, Caleb Shaver