![]() ![]() “Everything about this business has been old-fashioned. Now 63, Bernard is proud of the business she’s built doing things the old-fashioned way. We’re ageist to ourselves, like, ‘I’m too old to start that.’” “We have a lot of years left in our 50s and 60s, 70s. I talked to a lot of women thinking of retiring and they don’t feel viable, especially if a big part of your life is being a mom,” she said. ![]() “I was getting close to being an empty-nester. I had some money to fall back on, but not much,” she said, noting that she worked as a nanny sometimes while getting the business off the ground.Ī former worker on the Pacific Exchange options floor, stay-at-home mom and a dental benefits coordinator, Bernard was ready to take on something new. “I was either really, really dumb or really, really brave. As soon as the store’s lease ran out, she moved everything to Petaluma, with plans to sell wholesale. ![]() Ten years ago, Bernard took a leap of faith and bought a Napa ice cream store, not so much for the store, but the equipment. They’ll be busy until early October and will wind down after the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival. Their summer officially kicked off at BottleRock, where they sold about 2,000 paletas, ice cream sandwiches and single-serve ice cream cups each day of the three-day music festival. It’s busy season for Bertha, Bernard and all her employees. I love it,” she said, noting she thinks her method makes for a creamier product. Bertha contains a milky blue pool of glycol (which, it should be noted, is safe to use and never touches the food) that freezes Bernard’s handmade batches of paletas and ice cream in minutes.īernard said she’s one of the few people who still make ice cream this way, noting that most shops these days use nitrogen to flash-freeze their products. Then she turns and introduces Bertha, which, Bernard claims, is “almost as old as I am.”īertha is a hulking silver-sided, decades-old ice cream freezer that takes up the better part of the room. Bernard walks over to a small pot of them stewing for an orange-blossom sauvignon blanc paleta she’s making for a Clos du Val wine club party. It’s been a long trip from the stock exchange floor to slinging sweet summer treats, but it’s a journey Pilar Bernard is glad she made.Ĭlad in a hairnet and blue apron, she leads the way through her small Petaluma production facility to the room where the magic happens at Mariapilar Ice Creamery. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |