CFSBKers Jackie C. and Brian S. at the front desk with Greg. Read on to learn more about Jackie and Brian’s business! | Photo via Bond Street
Around Degraw: Ample Hills Creamery
Now that summer is over and nice, crisp walking-around weather has returned, we’d like to introduce a new feature on the CFSBK blog, Around Degraw! In this feature, we’ll be telling you about nearby small businesses we like. Looking for something to do after class that’s fun and within walking distance? Look no further! For our first installment, we talked Jackie C., a dedicated CFSBKer and part of the husband-and-wife team behind Ample Hills Creamery.
When and how did Ample Hills start?
We opened in the spring of 2011 with our first shop in Prospect Heights. We were prepared for failure but certainly not success, which was why we ended up having to close the shop after only being open for four days. We ran out of ice cream. We closed down and regrouped, hired more staff and made a lot more ice cream. We currently have two large brick and mortar shops in Brooklyn-our original shop on Vanderbilt and our shop in Gowanus where all our ice cream is being made. We have two seasonal kiosks: one on the waterfront in Brooklyn Bridge Park and another at Riis Beach in The Rockaways. In addition we have two smaller outposts in Manhattan, at Gotham West Market in Hell’s Kitchen and the other is inside Bubby’s in The Meatpacking District.
We also sell our pints in about 30 grocery stores throughout New York City and we ship nationwide.
Your Gowanus location is really close to the gym! Can you tell us a little bit about what it’s been like to be part of the Gowanus small business community?
We were super excited to have found our corner shop in Gowanus and even more psyched when we realized the potential for a roof deck and outdoor seating. Over the last several decades we’d watched Gowanus grow from abandoned warehouses and shady nighttime vibes to funky new community oriented spots, four star restaurants and great evening entertainment. When we signed the lease for Gowanus a few years ago we found out that this 17k square foot shuffle board court was going in and that was amazing. We knew then that clearly we were in good company.
What are your plans for Ample Hill in the next few years?
We are working on opening a larger production space in Red Hook so that we can open more shops in and around New York, as that’s what excites us the most.
A unique feature of Ample hills is your rotating and eclectic ice cream flavors. What is your all-time favorite flavor you guys have created and what is currently available that you’d recommend?
Pistachio Squared is most definitely my all time favorite flavor. For the longest time I’d been asking my husband Brian to make Pistachio and he felt like it was too common. I argued that sometimes common is good. He finally gave in and decided to make it but had to AMPlify it by making Pistachio brittle hence the the name Pistachio Squared. Needless to say it blew me away and continues to do so every time I have a scoop. We also offer a shop specific flavor at each of our locations that somehow pay tribute the history or neighborhood of where they are. Our Gowanus site specific flavor is called “It Came From Gowanus.” It’s a dark deep salty chocolate with lots of mix-ins such as hazelnut crack cookies, orange scented brownies, and white chocolate pearls. he flavor is both a nod to Brian’s former life as a sci-fi writer and the notoriously polluted Gowanus canal.
Gowanus has really rebuilt itself over the past few years. Are there other businesses or things to do around the neighborhood that you’d recommend?
CROSSFIT!!! And then once you’re super fit I’d say go to Baba’s and eat some pierogis followed by a game of shuffle board at The Royal Palms and then if your still hungry and want to play then you should go to Insa for some karaoke followed by Threes for some great beer. And really, I could go on.
Thanks, Jackie! It’s impossible not to love an ice cream shop named after a Walt Whitman line. Do you have a favorite small business near the gym? Send leads to Josh [at] crossfitsouthbrooklyn.com.
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Yesterday’s Whiteboard: NFT Work | Deadlift
Rack It Right CrossFit Journal
Choose to Fight Training Think Tank
Wednesday's Programming
Back Squat
1-1-1
Max effort day. After a few warm up sets, attempt to set a new personal best on the back squat. As always, use spotters for heavy attempts and stay with your barbell in the event of a miss. For Fitness athletes, start a little heavier than where you squatted 5 last week and go from there. For Performance athletes, start around 90% and go from there. If you're very new to the lift then perform 3-5 heavy singles instead of a true max effort single.
Post loads to comments.
Exposure 8 of 8
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For Time:
250m Row
21 Burpees
500m Row
15 Burpees
750m Row
9 Burpees
Post time and Rx to comments.
AG
A.
3 Rounds
5-10 sec ring support
5-10 kip swings
15-20 med ball pikes or tucks
B. Ring Dips
C. For time:
9-15-21 reps of:
Toes to bar
Ring dips
*Run 270m in between of each set.
6am with Lady Fox
BSQ: 315-325*-335(f) – 10# PR
325 felt solid, @335 went in with the plan to fail and followed through
Metcon: 7:58 had a nice wheeze going on after the first round
Deadlifts last night after a long red eye flight
365-375*-385* – 20# PR
7 a.m. doing Wednesday's work w/McDowell (who can sing the underground song from the Mario games surprisingly well).
BSQ: 250-275F-265F. Not my day. Did feel good that I resisted the urge to pitch forward, even when unable to get the weight up. Think a strength cycle is in my future… will miss the metcons, but it's time to try and break through a few bad habits in a structured environment.
Metcon: 9:58. This is kind of my wheelhouse but I managed to get intramuscular vaccines in both shoulders yesterday (hooray, flu and pneumonia season) so I wasn't 100% on this.
If you want to feel old, Super Mario 64 turned 20 years old last week. If, like me, you weren't allowed to own a video game system growing up and had to sneak over to a friend's house to watch them play all the cool new stuff, this song's for you.
Rare 8 a.m. class with McDowell and Jess because of a late debate night at work. McDo revealed he drank whiskey with Kaine. A nice, small class working out to an hour of lesser-known 1960s Stones songs.
Backsquat
2 X 215 1 X 225 1 X 235
This may be a new PR because the last time I hit this (during the last cycle) I was called out for not going low enough. Thanks Jess for keeping me honest this time.
Metcon in 9:58
<3 Ample Hills! Ooey Gooey Butter Cake is my FREAKING FAVORITE. Also, Jackie is a 7 AM'er.
Speaking of local small businesses…how about joining us at The Rock Shop tomorrow night at 8:30? Brainz n Gainz, our pub quiz team, has missed the last couple of weeks and I'm trying to keep the team alive! Please come, we have a great time!
6am with McD doing Monday work
NFT: Tried kipping HSPU and got them for the first time. Ended up stringing them in groups of 3 and 4. Not sure what took me so long, but this is a nice victory.
DL: 135,225,315,365,405. Didn't go near a PR, because I'm still recovering from weekend Ragnar sillyness.
12pm with Jeremy
HBBS
240-255F
Not a whole lot to say about that except that I am tired this week. That's 40# off my low bar 1RM but still a high bar PR.
WOD in 9:51 Rx
7 am with McDowell who only revealed to me that my PR attempt at 165 was not low enough. No songs, no whiskey drinking stories He was kind enough to demonstrate where it did go. I am disappointed because I should have it. It's right there. Or, it's an inch away from right there. Dang.
MetConbelievable whooopass: 11:04. I only paused between 7th and 8th burpee in the round of 15.
Love this series!! So glad to see some other local businesses highlighted on the blog. Huge thanks to Jackie for offering her time for this interview, also.. go eat some ice cream there stat!
squatting twice a week has immensely improved the quality of my life.
please dont take that from me next cycle, cfsbk.
Deadlift: 200#! Which was my goal. I think I had 205, but the bar was misplaced and kind of screwed me up. Congrats to everyone on all the pea!!!
NFT was a great warmup for deadlifts!
AG: fun warmup! Killer ab work with the med ball. Awesome ttb and ring dip workout, but I only made it through 34 dips. :/ yay!
AMAZING, ALLIE!!!!!
6:30pm with Whit
NFT work was completed with a 1.5pood bell, and 10 hspu per round.
Deadlifts with Pierre:
155×5
265×3
355×1
405×1
425×1 (match previous PR)
445×1 (PR!)
Now to squat 415 tomorrow morning at 6am… I hope.
6:30 pm class with Whit.
Hey Allie – Awesome Job on the PR, Welcome to the 200 club 🙂
4 rounds NFT 1 pood, 8-10 HSPU per round.
Deadlift with Jeremy & Ben
300 (Started with Last weeks 2 Rep weight and Previous PR)
315 (PR)
335 (Best & Final PR)
**This was the first cycle ever that I was 8/8 on the exposures. Love the results.