It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s an ice cream boat?
The concept of an ice cream boat is new and has never been seen in the Conroe community. But the dream of local entrepreneurs Ryan Stirpe and Brittany Clark is now a reality. There will now be a new way to cool down on Lake Conroe when the Conroe Ice Cream Boat sets sail for spring break on March 9th.
When people tend to imagine ice cream, they think about a truck going around a neighborhood and serving kids on the side of the road. While in Conroe, the original ice cream boat will open the accessibility to sell frozen treats on the lake.
“This all initially started with a hot day and a desire to have some ice cream. Brittney and I were at Lake Conroe Park and wanted some ice cream, but our options were far away,” Stirpe said. “We started talking about how great it would be if an ice cream truck just pulled up and saved the day. We then took that idea further and started talking about how much cooler it would be if an ice cream boat pulled up instead. From there, the idea just took off and became a reality.”
To transform a typical ice cream truck into an ice cream boat takes creativity.
“To be the ‘original ice cream boat’ it feels amazing! We love that we can bring this concept to the area because it is the first of its kind in the state of Texas,” Stirpe said. “Lake Conroe is such a unique lake because it is the perfect mix of residential, commercial and tourism, giving us so many avenues to venture into and expand on.”
With a mixture of people living along Lake Conroe, the residents in those neighborhoods are already excited about the concept.
“With the heat of the summer in Texas, having someone drive around on a boat to deliver frozen treats is something I’m so excited about,” sophomore Tylar Garcia said.
The availability of the ice cream truck isn’t just limited to whenever it’s around and about in the waters, for specific events you can just give the owners a call.
“We are also available to be booked for parties, including birthdays, weddings, business meetings, or family reunions,” Stirpe said. “However, this doesn’t just apply to homes and event centers on the shoreline. Even for homes in the neighborhoods surrounding the lake, as long as someone can find their way to a neighborhood park or boat ramp, we can help make some fun memories and serve some ice cream.”
To differentiate between what makes the new ice cream boat better than the typical ice cream truck, many special aspects were implemented to make this ice cream unalike from the competition.
“We want to take that basic concept and make it more exciting,” Stirpe said. “To achieve this, our boat is bright blue and pink with eleven-foot tall bright pink feather banners on the bow, so you can see us with no problems. We have four very loud speakers on the boat that will be playing traditional ice cream truck music, but we want to make it fun and play rock, country, and hip hop songs as well.”
It’s not just the physical aspects that make the ice cream boat special, but the mass publicity that makes it easily accessible is an advantage, unlike others.
“The boat is equipped with a live tracker, so anyone can go to our website ConroeIceCreamBoat.com – and follow us throughout the day,” Stirpe said. “As we go around the lake, we will also be posting to social media so people can follow us and know when we are getting close to them.”
With the preparations making this project successful, many setbacks were taken into place as well.
“We didn’t expect there to be so many hurdles to overcome in the development stage of this journey,” Stripe said. “Because this is such a new concept in Texas, things like funding, licensing, and insurance became difficult to acquire because people didn’t really know how to classify us“So we had to work with a lot of different regulatory and financial agencies to get that piece figured out. Now that we have, the typical obstacles face us. Things like weather and fuel prices can hurt us, along with the general operation of the boat.”
The dreams are still set in stone and ready to be a successful business, ready for the summertime.
“We’ve put so much planning into making this dream become a reality,” Stirpe said. “Now that we’re ready to launch, I think our biggest goal for year one is to build name recognition so people know where we are and how to find us. Expansion options are certainly something we will be paying attention to as we grow, as well as things like merchandise we may be able to offer, like shirts or hats.”
