Rich Draper, co-owner of the Ice Cream Club, reminisces with Kathy Willoughby at his Manalapan shop. Photo by Jerry Lower
By Ron Hayes
Here’s the big scoop.
Thirty years ago, two former fraternity brothers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign opened a little ice cream store in Manalapan.
Rich Draper was a finance major, Tom Jackson had a degree in economics, and their Ice Cream Club was the first tenant in the brand-new Plaza del Mar.
When Draper and Jackson dipped their inaugural scoop on Jan. 8, 1982, that corner of East Ocean Avenue and A1A was home to a Flagship bank. Across the street stood a private club called La Coquille.
The Flagship bank is SunTrust now, and the La Coquille club building has been replaced by the Ritz-Carlton hotel. But the Ice Cream Club is still there, still owned by Draper and Jackson, and their success is the sweetest scoop of all.
In addition to that cozy little shop in Manalapan, today’s Ice Cream Club is also an 18,000-square-foot manufacturing plant off High Ridge Road in Boynton Beach, where a staff of 55 produces about a million gallons of all-kosher ice cream and frozen yogurt every year. Seven trucks drive 30,000 miles each month to satisfy orders from 500 retail customers throughout the eastern United States.
And vanilla, chocolate and strawberry have been joined by Twixie and Choc ’n’ Awe, Snickelicious, Pirate’s Plunder and their trademark flavor, Garbage Can. Two hundred flavors to choose from!
How did these ambitious young men from Illinois wind up dipping ice cream here? They knew they wanted to start a business. But what? And where?
Jackson had worked in a pizza parlor in college. Or what about cookies? Candy? Ice cream?
“I was doing commercial leasing at the time, and heard about this center being built in Manalapan,” Draper remembers. “South Florida seemed like a good place for ice cream.”
Now, would they merely buy the ice cream, or make it themselves?
“And then we met a guy at a Chicago trade show who sold ice cream makers.”
But what to call the business?
“Manalapan had sign restrictions that were really tight,” Draper says “so we needed something short.”
Driving around the area, he noticed private clubs, tennis clubs, golf clubs.
The Ice Cream Club!
They waited a year for the plaza to be built, then did the inside painting, sanding and varnishing themselves.
“I was making ice cream in the store and letting the customers try it,” Jackson says.
‘Fish Eyes’ flamed out
Early on, they made up flavors, willing to try anything.
Coming back from the bars in college, they used to patronize a guy who sold hot dogs with everything on them — mustard, onions, ketchup, relish. He called his concoction The Garbage Truck.
Draper and Jackson started with a vanilla base and added seven candy bars — Three Musketeers, Snickers, Baby Ruth, Nestlé bars, Hershey bars, Heath bars and Reese’s Pieces — along with some chopped peanuts. They dubbed it The Garbage Can.
“But we didn’t know anything about the seasons in Florida,” Draper recalls.
That first summer, their dipping dipped; but come December, and the snowbirds, it revived. The business grew, and the flavor list grew.
Mexican Hot Chocolate — dark, with cinnamon, cayenne pepper and mini-marshmallows.
Winter Holiday — white chocolate with chocolate-covered cherry cups and cherry ribbon.
Elephant Ears — vanilla swirled with peanut butter and chocolate chips.
Alas, not all the flavors caught on.
“I came up with one that had lollipop chips in it,” Jackson remembers. “We called it Fish Eyes.” He chuckles. “Nobody liked the name.”
Licorice never took off, either.
Growing, but still a family
Two years after their debut, Draper and Jackson opened a second, larger store in North Palm Beach, and in 1985 moved into wholesale production and sales.
One snowbird was a young woman named Heather, who was brought to the Ice Cream Club by her grandfather whenever she visited from New York. Today, she’s Heather Draper, and the company’s director.
“Rich and I met on a blind date set up by our attorney,” she laughs. “When we were dating, Rich would bring over my favorite, Stellar Coffee, every time.”
That’s a rich coffee ice cream with fudge and mini dark chocolate coffee cups.
Over the years, The Club has been voted “Best Ice Cream” by Palm Beach Life magazine, Palm Beach Illustrated, The Palm Beach Post, The Miami Herald and South Florida magazine.
In 1992, those glowing reviews and growing business found them moving into the 18,000 square-foot plant in Boynton Beach.
“Every ingredient that we can buy from Florida, we do,” Heather Draper says, “except the candy bars. Those we have to bring in.”
Jim Cummins, 40, was a student at Atlantic High School when he started scooping ice cream at the store. Today, he and Coleman Kelleher, 38, lead a team of seven workers. Every day from 5 a.m. until 8 p.m., their crews make ice cream. About 1,500 three-gallon tubs a day.
Ask Cummins which of the 200 flavors he prefers to eat at home, and his face betrays a man trying to be diplomatic.
“We make 20 to 30 different flavors a day,” he says, “and every one has to be sample tested.”
“It’s a great place to work,” he says. “A lot of places are more corporate; we’re more family.”
Or maybe a club.
Thanks from the thin
Except for a few mandatory evacuations during hurricane season, The Ice Cream Club hasn’t closed in 30 years.
“We just want to thank all the great customers up and down A1A who’ve been so supportive over the years,” says Draper.
And yes, we know what you’re thinking now, and the answer is no.
Rich and Heather Draper, Tom Jackson, Cummins and Kelleher are not, by any stretch of the imagination, fat.
In fact, both Draper and Jackson are strikingly thin.
“We eat ice cream every day,” Jackson says.
Draper nods. “I don’t consider it anything other than regular food,” he says. “To me, ice cream is the fifth food
group.”
Workers mix flavor dots to create Cotton Candy flavor ice cream at the Ice Cream Club’s Boynton Beach plant.
Ice Cream Club founder Tom Jackson (left) stands with sales manager Jim Cummins, company director Heather Draper and co-founder Rich Draper at their plant in Boynton Beach.
Workers make about 1,500 three-gallon tubs of ice cream a day that are sold to more than 500 retail customers across the country.
Photos by Jerry Lower
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