Hugh Balthrop is opening a new Sweet Magnolia Gelato Co. location in April in Crosstown Concourse.
“I’m taking the space that was Area 51 [Ice Cream] next to French Truck Coffee,” Balthrop says.
He’s also working on a children’s book about gelato. Adults might want to read it, too. “When I first got into this business [I had to] and to this day, I still explain to people what gelato is.”
Gelato is “just ice cream; but it’s denser because it has less air/overrun than traditional American ice cream.”
When he decided to open a business in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Balthrop didn’t want to get into an oversaturated market like coffee or breweries. He wanted to take “the road less traveled.”
Balthrop, who now lives in Oxford, Mississippi, features more than 500 Sweet Magnolia Gelato Co. flavors. He currently is offering an old favorite, Lotus, which is based on the gelato served at the old Justine’s restaurant. He discovered it years ago in a newspaper article. “My relationship with Memphis — it’s my other home … I started talking to some folks, particularly older folks that are familiar with Justine’s. They thought it was a great idea, so I recreated it.”
Lotus, which is only available in Memphis at South Point Grocery, is “lemon-based with a little lemon zest. And toasted almonds. It has almond essence as well. It’s a unique taste.”
Balthrop originally owned First World Gallery, which he opened in 1995 in Washington, D.C. “It was art from the African diaspora.” He closed his gallery, and he and his wife, Dr. Erica Balthrop, moved to Chicago, where she could finish her residency. They then moved to Clarksdale, where his wife, as a child, spent summers with her grandparents.
Balthrop became a “stay-at-home dad” and did the cooking for their three children. “My tradition was to wake them up with mango, pineapple — tropical fruit. They liked it.”
Around 2011, Balthrop, who “always had this entrepreneurial spirit,” enrolled in the annual Penn State Ice Cream Short Course, where he studied ice cream and the science of ice cream. He also studied under a gelato master at The French Pastry School in Chicago.
Balthrop opened his first gelato business in a 2,000-square-foot industrial building in Clarksdale. He got the idea for his business name while holding hands with his daughter on a walk. “It was a breezy day. We had a bunch of magnolia trees, and at some point I just got a whiff of the magnolia flower.” Everything came together. “It hit me like a ton of bricks.”
Balthrop began creating flavors. He wanted “something Southern, either banana pudding or watermelon or blueberry.” He used “local ingredients from local farmers. Anything I could get my hands on … honey, sorghum, pecans.”
Balthrop then began selling. “Initially, what I did was start knocking on restaurant doors. I was like, ‘Take these samples, just give me an honest opinion. That’s all I require.’” If they didn’t like a flavor, Balthrop “went back to the drawing board. That’s what we did and what we do to this day.”
When the Clarksdale building was sold, Balthrop and his family moved to Oxford, where the manufacturing business and his other retail store are now located.
Karen Carrier, whose restaurants include The Beauty Shop Restaurant, recently sent Balthrop an order for 20 gelatos. She came up with most of the flavors, including Cinnamon Mexican Chocolate Chili Chunk and Jamaican Rum and Mango Vanilla. He got the order on a Monday and he delivered the gelato, some of which he’d never made before, on Friday.
Balthrop’s gelato is also available for shipping, and as for more retail stores, he says, “We might have another Downtown presence.”
And Balthrop does have a nickname. “The Gelato Man,” he says, with a laugh.
Sweet Magnolia Gelato Co. is at 1350 Concourse; (662) 313-6551.
Comparing the past five seasons shows a clear pattern of improvement. Stats courtesy of basketball-reference.com.