By Allie Ward
Katie Pearce had no idea her kindergarten craft project would become famous, but the smiling purple cow she drew at age five is now the face of her parents’ new ice cream shop in Lawrence.
“It had been hanging up in our kitchen ever since, so when we were thinking of a name, we just looked at it,” said Pearce, who is going into her senior year at Lawrence High School.
Purple Cow Ice Cream is the newest addition to Lawrence’s Main Street, nestled in along a quaint stretch of shops and restaurants. And while the Pearces are ready for business and had a soft opening on Aug. 21, Tom and Cindy Pearce said they are still making last-minute preparations for a September grand opening.
“We would have loved to open for the beginning of the summer but everything just takes twice as long as you think and costs three times more than you think,” Tom Pearce said.
The family had always talked about opening an ice cream shop, but the timing was never right. Tom Pearce worked at Merrill Lynch and now has a career in real estate, while his wife is a former employee of the testing company Prometric, a subsidiary of Educational Testing Service.
Talk led to an idea which took off and has become reality. The Pearces are expecting that it will take some time getting Purple Cow off the ground, but they are confident that they are in the right market.
“One of the great things about ice cream is that, yes, it may be difficult to take a family of four out to dinner or a movie or something like that, but you can get ice cream, and that’s in most people’s budgets,” Tom Pearce said.
Purple Cow will start off specializing in ice cream, but, eventually, the Pearces want to add other items to the menu – ice cream cakes, coffee, soups, hot dogs, milkshakes, smoothies and other desserts.
The ice cream distributor Purple Cow has partnered with is based in Long Island and is known for its freshness and its small, made-to-order batches. Fittingly, it’s called the Fresh Ice Cream Company.
“Because they make our ice cream to order, if you can think of a flavor, they will make it for you. So come October, we can have pumpkin ice cream,” Tom Pearce said. “We’ve gone the extra mile to find somebody that really manufactures a good ice cream; you cannot get this ice cream anywhere around here.”
Purple Cow will also offer soft-serve ice cream, indoor and outdoor seating and doggie treats for “our little four-legged friends,” Cindy Pearce said.
“We’re hoping to cater to those people who have [dietary restrictions],” she said. “We have a soy- or coconut-based product that we can offer and also sugar-free.”
The Pearces also plan to be involved in the community and they have recruited their daughter to set up a Facebook page for the business.
“We’d like to put events on there that are taking place,” Tom Pearce said. “I want to have a schedule so if people in the town are thinking, ‘Oh, what do you want to do this weekend?’ Well, let’s look at the Purple Cow Facebook page and see if there’s a baseball game at the high school or a track meet at Lawrenceville School or something going on.”
Purple Cow’s mascot, PC the cow, will be seen around town, and Cindy Pearce is coordinating an e-letter to build up a mailing list.
Cindy Pearce said the process has been a learning experience, but that her family is excited to finally have everything completed.
“We’ve been talking about this for a while,” she said. “This is such a great area and it’s kind of nice that we’re a part of it.”
More information is online at purplecowmainstreet.com.
Purple Cow Ice Cream is the newest addition to Lawrenceville’s Main Street. Pictured at the shop are owners Cindy and Tom Pearce with their daughter Katie. (Photo by Allie Ward.),
