We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ryan O’Hara a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ryan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

Our biggest hope is the build a legacy of culture and hospitality. Though I am proud of the products we create, I hope that after we’re gone, we will be remembered by how treated and loved our people, both our own team and our guests.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am the co-owner/founder of Big Spoon Creamery, working in tandem with my wife, Geri-Martha. I began my culinary career in 2007, and after working at multiple Birmingham area restaurants, I eventually landed at famed Birmingham institution, Bottega, working under the leadership of James Beard Award Winning Chef Frank Stitt.

During my tenure with Chef Stitt, I met my wife, Geri-Martha, who worked in pastry and desserts for the restaurant group. In 2014, we were dreaming of starting our own handmade artisanal ice cream company. We began the journey of Big Spoon Creamery with a small pop-up in our driveway that received tremendous support from our community.

From there, we continued to build Big Spoon, starting with an ice cream cart, then a truck, and now, three brick-and-mortar locations. Through this growth, we have worked hard to ensure that Big Spoon Creamery remains rooted in its mission to provide elite artisanal ice cream from a team that prides itself on unmatched hospitality.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

We started Big Spoon as a side hustle in 2014, doing pop-ups in our driveway selling ice cream that we made in our home kitchen. From the beginning, we had two central goals- make the best ice cream in the world, and impact the people around us in a positive way, using ice cream as the vehicle to do it. At that time, we were both working full-time as chefs under James Beard Award winning chef, Frank Stitt. We did that for about 9 months before finally taking the leap to go full-time with Big Spoon in Spring 2015. It was just the two of us(Ryan and Geri-Martha) at that time, doing an ice cream cart at farmers markets and different locations around town. I(Ryan) would run the cart, Geri-Martha would make all of the ice cream in the kitchen. We were able to expand in 2016 by launching an ice cream truck and growing our team to include a handful of team members. After another successful year, we opened our first brick-and-mortar location in Birmingham in 2017 and grew our team to 25. Two years later, we opened our second location in Homewood, and then a third in Huntsville in June 2023. Today, we employ 45 team members, operating 3 brick-and-mortar locations in addition to a robust catering operation and a dozen wholesale partners.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

I believe the backbone of our success for the past 9 years has been our culture and the team we’ve built. First of all, and it sounds overly simple, but we start with a really intentional hiring process finding high quality, high character people. We have de-prioritzed work experience, and put the emphasis on values, ethics, character, and other intangibles. We have incredibly high standards for who we hire because we believe it is central to who we are.

Once you have great people, I believe the biggest key to successfully leading a team and maintaining high morale/great culture is putting your team first above all else. That takes shape in a lot of ways, but ultimately it’s simply about leading your team as people, not as employees. Your team has to know that you care about them in a genuine way, not just for what they contribute to the company. You have to build trust, you have to be honest and transparent with them, and you have to show them you’re willing to sacrifice for them. We do these things because we do genuinely care about our team and we’re invested in their personal lives and want the best for them. The bonus is that when your team feels that connection and authentic relationship with you, they’ll also develop into more invested, committed, productive team members.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bigspooncreamery.com
• Instagram: @bigspooncreamery
• Facebook: @bigspooncreamery

Image Credits
Graham Yelton Photography, Caleb Shaver Photos