Carnival Barker’s latest graphic tee reads, “Give me ice cream or give me death.” It’s a motto owner Aaron Barker churns by, as it took him only a little over a year to propel his frozen dairy dynasty from a small Kickstarter to award winning retail storefront. Barker truly started from the bottom with no funding and is now set to open his second retail location in early 2015. He uses zero high fructose corn syrup, zero artificial flavors, zero preservatives, and a lifetime’s worth of passion to make his unique scoops.
Here’s a look at the journey of Carnival Barker, how it’ll fight the winter months, and what to expect from its new digs or as Aaron Barker puts it, “Carnival Barkers’ ice cream version of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.”
Q: How would you describe your first year with Truck Yard?
A: The first year was amazing. I hustled, hustled, hustled. I worked myself ragged. We had a good show. I paid off most of my bills. We got a good word out. However, I still have people come here and say, “I’ve been to the Truck Yard six times and never knew there was an ice cream stand here.” People know exactly where the helicopter is out front, but miss everything beyond that. Right now I’m making signs and I am going to repaint the table to fix things up some.
The people have been rad though. My customers are so cool. I’ve been invited to do so many things like Dallas Morning News’ Cookie Competition and Meat Fight. I’ve been working really hard trying to earn everything that’s come my way and it’s been a really great first year.
Q: What was biggest struggle you’ve faced since opening the retail location?
A: When I started this it was just an idea in my head. I’ve worked in restaurants and kitchens. You can put something together in your brain, but when it becomes reality it doesn’t always sync up. I had to buy a second ice cream maker because just one wasn’t cutting it. I was running out every weekend during the first four months of opening, but that never happens now. In the beginning, it was just a matter of going through the motions logistically to figure how things were going to function or not function. So, the biggest struggle really has just been about making it become a reality and putting on a good show.
Q: What are some changes that will follow the opening of this new retail location?
A: Opening should be late February or early March. I’ll have more space, more freedom, more time…You know, I can only produce so much ice cream in this location due to the physical limitations of the space, so the new location will offer much more room to work. That means more freezers and I won’t be restricted to the times that Truck Yard is open, so if I needed to I could work all day and night over there. Though, I will maintain this retail space for the duration of my lease, which is another 10 months or so.
Believe me, working with the Truck Yard is great, but working alongside their beer deliveries, their food deliveries, waiting for them to wash their dishes so that I can wash my dishes…it’s been a Herculean effort on my part to keep this on track. So hopefully, some of that stress will be relieved with our new location. It will be a lot more peaceful and serene with natural light. It’s like a permanent vacation for myself. Yes, I will be here at the Truck Yard location on a daily basis, but I won’t be here al day every day like I have been. I will have worker bees here.
The place in Oak Cliff will be almost exact to this location in that there will be a walk up window to get your scoop of ice cream and the entirety of the inside will be devoted to ice cream production. It’s like the Carnival Barkers’ ice cream version of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. This will be the ice cream factory that I needed.
Q: More flavors?
A: Yes, I’m sure. There’s always room for more flavors. The menu will expand, as I will have more freezers, so there will be more variety of ice creams along with other menu items. Recently, I expanded the menu with coffee affogato (an Italian coffee float using Noble Coyote Coffee Roasters), s’mores kits, hot chocolate, and more.
Q: Speaking of these warmer treats, what do you do during the colder months?
A: I try not to spend money. I have a fire pit to attract more people as it’s an outside spot, but I put effort into not spending more money than I can. Texas people just don’t want ice cream in the winter.
Q: Are you selling wholesale right now?
A: No I am not. That’s one thing I am looking forward to with the new location, getting my wholesale manufacturing license back. I have to get over there and get my equipment set up and make sure it’s tested and make sure I’ve read all the rules before I call them out. I’m not promising it’s going to be right when we open the new spot, but my goal is to have two retail locations and my wholesale accounts. I have a vanilla extract company, but I am just waiting on the doors to open, so I can get my license to start selling that wholesale. I’m excited for it all to come together.
Q: Tell me about your involvement with Meat Fight 2014.
A: My mother has MS pretty bad and the proceeds went to the National MS Society, so that really hit home for me. I didn’t realize until a couple days before the Meat Fight that they gave my mother a wheelchair for the occasion. It was freezing cold all day and there was no heat, but they raised $100,000 in about six hours, so it was just amazing. It was my first time and it was a great thing to be a part of with Alice Laussade. I am just really hoping that they will invite me back again next year. It was just all the meat you could eat. I made a bacon ice cream.
Q: Bacon ice cream? What does that entail?
A: I make my own vanilla extract. You can make it a couple different ways, but the way I make mine is with vodka. I also make a bourbon vanilla extract, so this one was a maple and bourbon vanilla ice cream with candied bacon. Blind Butcher smokes their own bacon, so they brought me three pig sides of bacon. I used the slicer here and candied it.
Q: Do you have a favorite flavor on the menu?
A: Personally, I spend so much time making my vanilla extract that I believe our vanilla is on point. It’s probably the best in Dallas at least. You can tell a lot about an ice cream shop by the vanilla they use. Vanilla is the number one selling ice cream in the world for a definite reason. Anything with bacon in it, I’m down for. Any time I’m in a rut, I get my bacon out and my creativity just seems to blossom. The munchies (peanut butter with chocolate covered potato chips), our Meat Fight bacon, and vanilla probably rank as my favorites. Our cookies n’ cream cannot be beat. It’s not just vanilla with Oreos, but it’s actually a cookie-flavored ice cream with cookies. When the cookies break up it gives it that dark color. We sell a lot of cookie butter using Trader Joe’s Cook Butter as well.
Q: Last time I came you had a band called The Rye Boys playing. Will that be a regular thing?
A: That was a fun time. Once, the weather warms up I want it to be. I’m trying to up my game a little bit. I’m talking to a guy about getting some fire breathers, some local music, maybe a puppet show, and then there’s the fire pit I have now. The more people linger, the more apt they are to buy some ice cream. I just want people to come hangout with me.
Q: What’s been the most memorable part about this whole experience thus far?
A: When we hit the first year mark it was hard to believe we made it through. For me, I go through the motions every day, showing up on time, and just trying to do a good job, but we’ve been running hard for a year nonstop and it’s been tough. At the same time, it’s been so fulfilling and gratifying to see all the people I’ve gotten to make happy and make smile. I see the nice things people say on social media and the feedback has been great. Where I come from people don’t get chances like this. I have a lot of competition around Lower Greenville, but after getting through this first year I know I can do this.
The whole year’s been a dream come true. I thought about it, dreamed about it, and one day it was all real.
Q: Was it always ice cream for you?
A: I was a journalist first and wanted to be a professional writer since I was 12 years old. I put myself through college working within the restaurant business. I worked with newspapers and magazines. I got out that and transitioned to marketing and advertising, but once I got a bite of the corporate world I just said “no more.” I had this ice cream idea and I just rolled with it. It’s always been ice cream all the way.
Q: How did you initially get word out about the place because you seem like you were pretty much an instant success?
A: Well, I have a lot of friends. For awhile I was giving my ice cream away to a lot of the local kids and East Dallas folks. Other then having friends and word of mouth, I don’t know how it happened. I’ve been around Dallas a long time, but I talk the talk and walk the walk. My product speaks for itself and it’s a damn good ice cream.
Q: So tell me, where do you hangout when you’re not making ice cream?
A: Either at home with my wife and cats, over here at Single Wide, or out riding my moped. Also, I have my band, we have our second record coming out this year. We are the Street Arabs.
Q: What about food?
A: Hands down Lockhart has the best barbecue in Dallas. My go-to Tex-Mex is Matt’s El Ranchito. Duh, I eat at Blind Butcher. In fact, I ate there last night.
