Customers can choose from 18 different flavors each day, and the company has scores of other flavors it rotates into its daily offerings. (Tom Haraldsen/Salt Lake Business Journal)
Kim Malek never envisioned how her ice cream business, which she co-created with cousin Tyler Malek 15 years ago with one store in Portland, Oregon’s Art District, would grow to what it has become today.
With the opening of Salt & Straw’s newest location on Oct.16 in Riverton, in Mountain View Village, there are now 58 stores in 12 states, fulfilling her dream of “opening a place where people could come together over ice cream.”
“We’ve wanted to bring Salt & Straw to Utah for years, and it means so much to finally be here,” Kim said. “Utah has such a distinctive ice cream and dessert culture, and we wanted to honor that from Day 1. Pink Frosted Sugar Cookie Dough is our love letter to Riverton, made because of how much we’ve already fallen for this community. We can’t wait to meet our new neighbors and watch this become a place where people come together over something they love.”
On opening day, scores of Utah families came in to sample Salt & Straw’s variety of flavors — always 18, featured front and center. Customers can sample as many as they want.
“We call sampling all 18 flavors ‘going around the world,’” Kim said with a smile.
Over the past decade and a half, Salt & Straw has created nearly 8,000 different flavors of ice cream, from the traditional favorites like chocolate and vanilla (in various combinations of ingredients) to truly unique flavors: Arbequina Olive Oil, Hazelnut Cookies N’ Cream, Honey Lavender, Salty Nut Guava and Cheese, Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons, and monthly specials. For October, those include Jack ’O Lantern Pumpkin Bread, the Great Candycopia, Creepy Crawly Critters, Witch’s Brew Fruit Punch Sherbet and Chocolate Graveyard Cookie Crumble.
For Thanksgiving, Kim said, they are inspired by the idea of Friendsgiving, so they will be offering flavors inspired by a five-course Thanksgiving meal. The Great Candycopia incorporates five different candies in nine pounds of candy per gallon. At several stores, people will sit in a circle at a table and pass around dishes of different flavors, like a family at a Thanksgiving dinner table.
Salt & Straw’s flavors change every month, and the Maleks always incorporate a theme or a story. Most flavors are developed six months in advance. And sometimes, ideas don’t work. Kim said they were approached by the Oregon Crab Commission about creating an exclusive flavor.
“Tyler tried to create a neapolitan reminiscent flavor with crab being the pink and butter for the white,” Kim recalled. “It wasn’t good, but it gave us a new technique for ice cream with more of a milk-based sorbet.”
If you have dietary restrictions, 20 percent of Salt & Straw’s menu is dairy-free, and the majority of its flavors are gluten-free. The store’s name pays homage to the creation of ice cream. With old-school ice cream makers, you needed salt to put in the base to make the mixture freeze. Then, ice cream makers had to pack their ice cream on straw to keep it cold.
Salt & Straw has opened in Riverton’s Mountain View Village shopping center.
“Bringing Salt & Straw to Utah is an exciting milestone for Mountain View Village and a reflection of the caliber of brands we are proud to welcome to the property,” said Jean Paul Wardy, co-founder and CEO of CenterCal Properties.
“Salt & Straw has established itself as a highly distinctive brand, known for its creativity, craftsmanship, and ability to turn a simple experience into something memorable. We are incredibly excited to welcome Salt & Straw to Mountain View Village as the brand’s first Utah location,” said Heather Nash, general manager of Mountain View Village. “We know our guests are going to love what Salt & Straw bring to our community."
Yes, they’ve done their homework, knowing Utahns love their ice cream. The Maleks will be opening another store at Trolley Square before the end of the year.